


Falling Over the Line Between Love and Situational Acquaintance

by NoOneFrUkingCares



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Author Is Sleep Deprived, Businessmen, But like they're on vacation, Comedy, Fluff, Humour, It's only teen and up because there's like curses, Kim Bros, M/M, Summer Vacation, nice bully, people get bullied
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-05-31 16:51:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 28,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19430110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoOneFrUkingCares/pseuds/NoOneFrUkingCares
Summary: Ah yes, it’s summer, the time of heat and laziness and courtships. More blood-thirsty than vicious mosquitos are the families of the rich, fighting to get their children married off to the highest bidder, and to the best trophy, combining empires and taking over countries with a few little alliances marked by a kiss. This year, on the chopping block is young spry Wu Yifan, 25, tall, handsome, and the heir to the illustrious Wu Corporations, practically the most influential power in China’s tech industry, right after the government and the non-existent god. Kim Junmyeon is 25, and the second eldest of the Kim brothers, a nickname for the four boys set to inherit Kim Enterprise, Korea’s favourite real estate manipulator. After his parents successfully married off his older brother Minseok to the previous richest and most eligible Chinese bachelor, all eyes are now on him and the race for Wu Yifan’s heart. Come, settle in, take a seat and make a drink as you watch the brawl in the sun in the most dangerous of territories, love and the affairs of the rich.





	1. The story

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt Petal:** #199
> 
>  **Author's Note:**  
>  So, first is an apology to the prompter, because I have no clue how this fic went. I think I had an idea when I started, but now it's like hmmm did you see this as how this was going to go? I think I tried to stay close to the prompt, but honestly this turned out in such a different way than I imagined. 
> 
> Second is a thank you/apology to Mod Honeybee, because I'm sorry for making this difficult and thank you for understanding and helping throughout the process. Also thank you for letting me take this prompt too, because I don't know when I should stop. 
> 
> Third is a thanks to my [sweetheart/beta](https://archiveofourown.org/users/extensive_scribe). Without you I think I would have combusted so many times, and you're probably the only reason this whole fic makes (semi-)sense. 
> 
> I really enjoy writing Krisho, and I swear that I love them even though I write them like they're the stupidest people in the world. God Krisho could kill me (with the amount of angst people write on this goddarned website they probably already have) and I'd be thankful. There's a bunch of repeating themes here because I'm uncreative, and they sleep like a lot because I am always dreaming about being able to take a nap. I've spit out so much fluff that I need to like write some people dying or something to feel better. This took a lot of everything. 
> 
> (Also Jeongsoon is genderbent Leeteuk. I apologise for how OC she and Heechul might be, I'm not really an ELF, just someone who thinks they're cool.)
> 
> **Disclaimer: Summary may not be fully representative of story.**

Kim Junmyeon loves his family, he really does. What he doesn’t love, is when they try to get all up in his love life. 

“Dad, I’m fine being single, stop trying to find me a boyfriend.” Junmyeon presses the button for the elevator, checking his watch as he waits. 9:45. The meeting starts in 5 minutes so he should make it, unless there’s a lot of people wanting to get off anywhere between the 5th floor and the 73rd. 

“You’re fine, but am I?” Kim Heechul laughs as his second eldest son sighs, all too done with him. “And I’m not even the one searching for a boyfriend for you, that’s your mom.”

“I know you two plot together, dad. Besides, I’m not going to do it, I don’t even have the time for a relationship.” The elevator arrives, and it’s completely stuffed to the brim with people. Junmyeon’s heart drops. Then one man steps out, and it’s like a herd of sheep was released as everyone else pours out, apparently all needing to be on the 5th floor. But then again, this is the cafeteria.

“You sure? There’s a guy who’s in town that I really think you’ll like. You two have the same sense of humour, and he’s pretty good-looking.” Heechul continues, apparently in Jeongsoon’s office because the sound of laughing people comes over the phone.

“You’ve said the humour about like every person before. Their sense of funny is people falling and then hitting themselves on something hard, which is not the kind of joke I like.” Junmyeon decidedly chooses to ignore the looks comment as he walks into the elevator, now with just one person inside. The guy gives him what is sure to be a weird look, and Junmyeon curls inwards a little, resolving to not meet his eyes again. He leans over to press the button for the 73rd floor, and nearly has a heart attack when he mistakes 2 for 3. It’s okay, the guy isn’t getting off at the same floor as him, he doesn’t have to ever see him again after this incident. 

“Okay, that’s only because I haven’t met them before. But I met him this time, and he chuckled at that dad joke you told me yesterday.”

“The one about the sheep? I thought you hated it.” 

“I did. I just wanted to see if he did.” 

“Fine, but that doesn’t prove anything in terms of compatibility, dad.” 

“Yes it does. You need someone who’s willing to laugh with you.” Laughter pours out of the phone again, and Junmyeon wonders if the man next to him could hear by how loud it is. “Anyways, his name is W-”

“I’m hanging up dad.” Junmyeon drowns him out, barely hearing the little chuckle he gives as he jabs at the red end button. Well, Junmyeon heard a syllable, but he doesn’t know the whole name or he would’ve had to search him up, and despite what his parents insist, Junmyeon does not need a significant other. 

The rest of the floors wizz past in a blur of numbers, and Junmyeon’s suddenly thankful that they decided that they actually did need good elevators for this building. When the man moves to step out on floor 72, Junmyeon moves as close to the wall as he can without looking pathetic, and catches the bare glimpse of the man just as the doors are shutting. God, he’s tall. His hair is also neatly stylised like how Junmyeon likes it, and no, he is not going down this path. But imagining how his parents would react if he walks in and just announces that after they’ve spent years trying to find him a good match, he bumped into a stranger and fell in love. 

The expression he would surely see on their faces is funny for about 5 seconds, and then Junmyeon shoves that thought away to the darkest corner of his mind, to never see the light of day again. Right now, he needs to worry about making this meeting on time. It’s already 9:49 and he has no clue who’s attending with him from his staff, which may be problematic.

~~~

Junmyeon walks out of the meeting feeling like they somehow backtracked a little, which was near to impossible but somehow just occurred. He jabs angrily at the button for the elevator up to his offices on the 100th floor, but both elevators have just stopped at 5 and are taking a suspiciously long time ticking through the numbers, so Junmyeon gives up and heads for the stairs. Sure, he’ll probably get there after the elevator, but he needs more exercise, especially since he’s been skipping gym workouts to work. Jongin and Minseok might both be unhappy about this, but some things are necessary evils.

Speaking of Minseok, the first thing Junmyeon sees after entering his office is actually Minseok, half-sitting on his desk, Junmyeon’s office phone to his ear.

“Yes, cancel his evening plans, he is to have nothing to do tonight. Thank you secretary Lee.” Minseok puts the phone back onto the receiver when he sees Junmyeon walk in, hopping gently off the desk to open his arms wide for a hug.

“Junnie!” He’s all beams and happiness, but Junmyeon can’t help but dwell on the little bit of conversation he caught. 

“Minseok-hyung, did you just tell my secretary to cancel all my evening plans?”

Minseok frowns as he hugs Junmyeon, and Junmyeon’s arms, traitors, both of them, automatically wrap around Minseok as well. 

“I don’t see you for a month and those are the first words to me when we meet again? Junnie, I’m hurt.”

Junmyeon tightens his grip on his brother a little more enthusiastically, feeling a little weight in his heart. He did miss seeing Minseok, but honestly this was to be expected. He hasn’t seen his brothers more than 5 times in a week since college, and that was because they all lived in the same dorm.

“I missed you, I did! But did you tell my secretary to cancel all my plans?” Junmyeon removes Minseok from his grasp to stare his older brother in the eye. Minseok smiles back, not a hint of regret in his face.

“Yeah.” When Junmyeon’s seriously devastated face does not change even a tad in expression, Minseok’s face falls a little too, huffing out a sigh. “You overwork yourself, I just want to make sure that you’re okay and that you aren’t falling asleep on your desk anymore.”

“Look who’s talking.” Junmyeon mentally counts the amount of times he’s had to rescue Minseok from an uncomfortable sleeping position, both at his desk in college and as the head of the international departments branch. Minseok hits him lightly for that reference.

“We’re talking about me, not you, and you are going to go out and watch a movie tonight.”

“Minseok-hyung, there was important stuff I actually had to do! Uncancel my plans for me.” Junmyeon points at the phone, already knowing that his older brother would not budge on this issue, but it’s always nice to try. Besides, Minseok probably did something shitty again like pull rank on him so that Taeyong wouldn’t uncancel even if Junmyeon begged.

“Nope. The kids are out of school on summer break, you shouldn’t be working. You are going to go out and enjoy yourself. I can feel the stress in the air.”

“You’re causing it. And besides, we’re not kids, what do school being out have anything to do with us?” Junmyeon deadpans, feeling the statement getting truer and truer by the second.

“Well, did you see that new comedy that you were talking about a little bit back yet? The one about the cats?” Minseok rolls on forwards with his movie plans, completely ignoring Junmyeon’s very valid point about school.

“No, and I’m not going to see it because I have a project due really soon and almost no proper work done on it after that meeting.”

“See what I mean? You’re totally stressed!” Minseok shoves a hand into his breast pocket and Junmyeon swears, if he pulls out those tickets-

“I’m also stressed because you all keep wanting to set me up with random dudes that I don’t know and won’t like anyways, and I can’t get any work done because I’m trying to bat you off and them!” Junmyeon throws his hands into the air, _this_ close to just throwing his laptop at Minseok. It should be okay, everything’s backed up anyways.

“Well, then you should just take some time off and watch that movie. I got you a ticket for your favourite showing time.” Just like Junmyeon thought, Minseok pulls out a movie ticket and Junmyeon gets ready to throw the laptop across the room. “Who knows, maybe you’ll find someone you like also alone.”

The laptop hits Minseok in the chest, and he fake-pouts as he catches it and then tucks it under his arm, more or less confiscating it. “That hurts. Hitting your older brother with a laptop when he comes so eagerly with a gift?”

“Hyung, I don’t want the gift, I want to be able to work.”

“Everything will pass by okay, you don’t need to worry about this project.” Kim ‘If-I-don’t-know-everything-about-this-project-down-to-its-roots-people-may-get-fired’ Minseok was saying that everything would just pass??? Now Junmyeon knows he has a second agenda.

“You’re trying to set me up with someone, aren’t you?” Junmyeon asks, suspicious.

“I’m genuinely just trying to get you to watch a movie. I’m not trying to set you up with someone right now, mom is.”

“You are definitely trying to set me up with someone.” Well, Junmyeon might sound sure, but he isn’t. Minseok doesn’t have a specific tell for when he’s lying, and so far he’s never actually gotten beaten at poker. God, why couldn’t it be Jongin trying to make him watch a movie? 

“I’m really not. I only bought you one ticket and a large popcorn and drink to pick up. No one else should be there unless they’re with someone else.” Minseok looks so genuine that Junmyeon honestly can’t tell if he’s being lied to or not. Fine, he’ll just trust him this time.

“Fine, hand over the ticket.” Minseok cheers a little as he hands over the ticket, and Junmyeon feels something weigh down as he pockets it, knowing that he’s given in. “But you better help me with the project.”

“I already have all the details. Have fun at the movies, and don’t bother going home with your work.” Minseok smiles and waves, and sees himself out. Wait, what did he mean by having all the details? No one’s sent anything to anyone outside of their group, have they?

Junmyeon shrugs, deciding that doing his work is more important than trying to figure out whatever riddle Minseok was giving him this time. But he doesn’t have his laptop. And suddenly, Junmyeon realises exactly why Minseok was smiling so widely with the comments about the details. He turns and runs out of the offices, catching Minseok just as he steps into the elevator and they start to close.

“Give me back my laptop, hyung!” The doors close in Junmyeon’s face and Minseok does nothing but wave.

~~~

The end of the day comes harshly, through a series of events that makes Junmyeon want nothing more than to go home and to bed. He had to wrangle his laptop from Minseok after he copied and sent all the documents to himself and started working like it was his project. Taeyong indeed didn’t let Junmyeon have his evening client meetings, saying that he dropped them all onto Jongdae’s plate instead, and then was able to get approximately no work done because Minseok locked him out of most of his files, besides the one that just has the words “ENJOY YOURSELF” in size 50 bold font, and another that was combing through his calendar for the next seven months. God, the one time in months he’s seen Minseok, and he already wishes Minseok was far away again so he can’t see him.

At this point, he’s honestly a hell of a lot closer to that breakdown Minseok hinted at in his office than he actually was during the day, and just because he had freaked out once when everything went wrong during college doesn’t mean that it was necessary for everyone to start imposing a relaxation order on him whenever it seemed like he had a lot to do. But even if Minseok had ulterior motives, he did buy him a ticket to that movie he was looking forward to, so Junmyeon’s going to actually follow instructions and see that movie so it doesn’t go to waste. 

The theatre is pitch black when he enters, the pre-movie ads already playing and not a single other soul around. Sweet, Junmyeon likes it best when he’s the only one in the theatre and can just respond and react to the movie how he wants to. He takes his usual seat in the direct centre and puts his popcorn and drink on the seat to his right. 

Five minutes into the movie, when the hero is adopting his new pet sidekick, a slightly grey cat that knows what she wants and when, someone comes into the theatre. They walk like they’re trying to teach elephants to tiptoe, and bumps their way down the row where Junmyeon sits. Ignoring Junmyeon’s silent prayers for them to sit somewhere else, anywhere else, they point, or at least gestures at the seat to Junmyeon’s left, and says in a voice deeper than the ravine he wants to toss himself into, “Can I sit here?”

He can, but Junmyeon wishes so much that he wouldn’t. But instead of saying that, because it’s rude, Junmyeon clears his voice so it doesn’t sound like he was just inhaling popcorn before the actual movie had even started. Dammit, Minseok definitely fucking set him up. 

“Yeah, no one’s sitting here.” 

The man nods in acknowledgement and sits down, placing his popcorn on his other side. Junmyeon hopes that he’s a good movie-goer and knows to not talk or crunch too loudly or commit any of the other movie theatre sins.

Unfortunately, he’s a model example. But Junmyeon, disturbed by the dark mass to his left that prevents him from just draping himself over two chairs and watching movies like he’s in bed, cannot stop thinking about the fact that he’s just there, quietly chewing on some popcorn and sipping his drink. Seriously, how do you quietly chew popcorn? It’s only half-way through the movie and Junmyeon realising that he has no clue what the plot is, and what this new cat being chased around an office building is doing, that Junmyeon realises he has a problem. 

And like most problems Junmyeon has, he tries to solve it by talking to it. Even if he breaks about ten etiquette rules by opening his mouth and letting sound travel out instead of letting substance go in, it might make the man annoyed enough to move to a different spot and leave Junmyeon in peace. If it doesn’t, well, he gets a friend and everyone gets what they want from him? Either way it’s going to work a lot better than if he was talking to a stock market problem or a stubborn client being an ass.

“Do you have any clue what’s going on? I think I lost track of the plot about ten minutes in.” Junmyeon doesn’t bother to whisper. The sound is loud enough for them to hear it perfectly even if they were having a full-blown conversation, he’s tested it out before. 

“Ah, so the grey cat is pretty mischievous and when her owner wasn’t looking, snuck into her owner’s bag which the owner then accidentally brings to his work, where he has a pretty high position. The building doesn’t have a pets allowed rule and he doesn’t know that his cat is there, so the cat is just running around wildly and avoiding being caught in various ways. Did you see the first movie? You don’t need to have seen it, but it provides a little more background for you to focus on and can help.”

“I did see the first movie, yeah, it was about the black cat?” Junmyeon stutters through the sentence, too surprised by the fact he was given such a thorough and neat answer. With the little light from the screen due to the cat climbing through a vent, Junmyeon can see the man nod, taking a thoughtful bite of popcorn. 

“That plot was a lot easier to follow, yeah.” 

The sudden silence leaves Junmyeon feeling like he’s suddenly done something wrong again, and he wonders if it would be appropriate to apologise. Well, might as well just do it, things can’t get worse from here.

“Sorry about interrupting the movie, the past few days had been a bit stressful so I was kinda out of it.” And now Junmyeon’s acting like one of those people without a sense of a personal limit and like to overshare every detail in their lives. Great.

“It’s okay, I honestly think that this movie belongs in the category of movies that should just be good background noise. It’s nice, but I’m just coming here to take my mind off of things from work and so as long as it’s something gentler, I’d watch it.”

“Ah. Are things getting too overwhelming for you too?” Junmyeon never considered himself the type of person that would be able to just start a conversation, but the words just managed to flow. This was probably just like another occurrence of the convenience store worker who gave him some free junk food and played a random family friendly movie when he was completely breaking down in college over an essay that was his closest scare to failing. But at the same time, there’s a kind of awkwardness that settles nicely instead of how it was stifling and layered with the convenience worker, and Junmyeon thinks that it wouldn’t be so bad if he could meet this guy again for maybe a meal, talk somewhere not pitch black and with so much money wasted. 

“Yeah. There’s also an added thing of my mom trying to set me up with potential partners.” There’s a really aggressive straw slurp that Junmyeon feels a bit too acutely. “So I dunno, I probably just need a break.”

Junmyeon nods, and there’s a quiet moment before he remembers that the man next to him can’t see what he’s doing. 

“A break sounds great.” Junmyeon wills the blush to fade, it’s not embarrassing if it’s not noticed.

“Yeah. Maybe after this assignment I can take one.”

Slowly, the conversation dies, seeing how there’s not really anything much else to say. But Junmyeon feels better than he has all day, the stress not quite gone, but smaller, and taking a nap. 

Somewhere around the janitor who is going to receive the great jumpscare of his life, Junmyeon feels a gentle weight, slowly, slowly, slip from whatever dark crevice in this dark theatre to his shoulder and rest there. With the image of that theatre horror movie that Jongdae thought would be fun to force him to watch still fresh in his mind, Junmyeon has to resist the urge to look. He doesn’t know if it would be better to go to his death knowing or unknowing, but the way that the weight is settling heavier and heavier on his shoulder makes him think that looking a demon in the eye might not be the worst decision he’s ever made. 

On the count of three. Then he’ll turn around and confront the hopefully not demon demon. Maybe he should just ignore it and keep watching the movie. Demons disappear when the lights come up, don’t they? 

There’s a huge shift in the weight on Junmyeon’s shoulder, so much that Junmyeon actually wonders if he should go to a church and start praying, but then it stops and Junmyeon is left with a heavier weight on his shoulder. Without his nice three seconds before death countdown, Junmyeon turns his head sideways, just enough to be able to see what is hurting his heart. 

As soon as he catches a glimpse of black hair, nicely fluffened and smelling like a hotel shampoo from a chain that treats Junmyeon quite nicely, a sigh of relief travels from his heart straight to his lips. 

Thank goodness it’s only this man next to him. No reptile-like aliens trying to kill him. 

But then Junmyeon immediately identifies this next problem. The man is sleeping on his shoulder. Oh god, how does he get him off without being rude?

Sure, Junmyeon is literally the last person who can judge anyone for being so tired they just end up asleep as soon as their heart rate calms down enough, Minseok’s caught him dozing off while trying to get through the last few papers enough times to testify that, but does this man really have to sleep on his shoulder? They don’t even know each other, and this is invading like 75 levels of the concept of personal space that are all stacked hazardously on Junmyeon’s shoulder. 

Junmyeon can’t just shove him off, no one sleeps in public on a random stranger’s shoulder unless they were dead tired, and Junmyeon isn’t going to be that asshole. So instead, he goes for the classic nudge-slightly-and-hope-they-wake-up-enough-to-move-away.

“Umm, hey.” Junmyeon shrugs his shoulders slightly, but the problem is that the man is a lot larger/taller than he is, and so the shoulder movement seemed to have no effect at all. He keeps breathing at a normal pace, automatic breathing keeping it at a steady in and out that is surprisingly in time with the movie’s soundtrack. Well, maybe he didn’t do it with enough force. Jongin was always telling him that his nudges were barely harder than a butterfly taking off. 

“Hey. Can you…” Junmyeon nudges him a bit harder, using his other hand to slightly shake the man’s shoulder. Of course it doesn’t work, but the man does manage to flop surprisingly bonelessly, and Junmyeon decides it’s probably good to just give up early before he wakes the guy. It’s not like he’s purposely bothering Junmyeon, and even if it’s really uncomfortable, the man deserves some sleep. At least his hair smells good, if nothing else.

The credits are sliding across the screen before the man stirs again, slowly pulling himself up to an upright position, blinking and moving with slow, creaky movements as he stretched himself out.

“What’s going on now? Is the cat…”

“The movie’s already over.” The man blinks a few more times, gingerly stretching his neck and peering at the white credits moving. He turns to Junmyeon, one hand resting unconsciously on his head, but not managing to fix the little bit that escaped his ponytail at the back. Junmyeon doesn’t bother telling him about that, if only to be petty. Besides, he looks kinder and less threatening like this, eyes slightly confused without the time required to harden into stern stubbornness. 

“Oh. Um. Did I sleep on you?” His fingers have untied his hair and managed to find the little tangle, and are slowly combing it through, helping his hair settle back to the pinch perfect state it had been in before he dozed off. 

“Yeah. It’s okay, we all have those days.” Junmyeon lets his usual business “genuine” smile rise onto his face, stretching his arms and arching his back to force out the kinks of not being able to move. Even if it was rude, he had been able to steal some popcorn from the other guy’s cup. 

“I’m really sorry about that. I didn’t mean to do it, sorry for bothering you.” The way he repetitively apologizes softens Junmyeon’s heart, and before he knows it, the fake smile quickly slips into real territory, dangerous.

“It’s really fine. The only thing you did wrong was miss the movie.” Junmyeon jokes, watching as the man shakes his hair out and then puts it back in his little ponytail. 

“Well, I still feel bad, can I buy you another movie ticket without me to bother you to make up for it?”

“Oh, you really don’t need to, and besides, you tolerated me asking you what the plot was halfway through.” The man calms down a little, seeming to agree. Before he can say anything, Junmyeon barrels on, “And if you still feel bad, then you could buy me something to eat later.”

The man pauses, considering the invitation. Before Junmyeon could regret his words, if Minseok was here watching then he was probably seeing how Junmyeon was playing exactly into his hands, the lights click on and they’re suddenly bathed in light, blinking away the darkness. Workers come in to start sweeping and cleaning up, and Junmyeon starts gathering his finished snacks to go.

“Sure. I’m guessing you haven’t had dinner yet?” The man asks, picking up his mostly-finished drink and half-eaten popcorn. 

“No, you know any good dinner spots?”

“Not really, I’m not actually from around here, but a friend told me about this theatre since I was waiting for this movie to come out.” They start walking out, and Junmyeon instantly relaxes. Minseok wasn’t lying, he didn’t set him up with a guy.

“Well, I usually do nothing but eat out, so I know somewhere nice.” Junmyeon tosses out his empty containers in the trash, but the man hurriedly finishes the last dregs of his drink before tossing it in with the popcorn. Kinda a waste, but no one else’s gonna eat it.

“Cool. Where is it?” 

“It’s like one block down, a bit upscale if you don’t mind.” Junmyeon points in the direction that most likely will be the right one, hoping that after they walk out it wouldn’t be completely opposite.

“That sounds nice.” The silence between them starts to stretch as Junmyeon realizes quickly that he doesn’t actually know the man’s name. But how to ask? 

“I’m sorry, my manners seemed to all have vanished tonight. My name is Wu Yifan, what’s yours?” Yifan sticks a hand out smoothly, remedying the tension, and Junmyeon files that trick away for a rainy day.

“Oh, I’m Kim Junmyeon. Pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure’s all mine.”

~~~

“So, how did you enjoy that movie?” Minseok pops by again in the morning, carrying with him all the work that should’ve been done by Junmyeon and a nosy desire.

“It was nice. Thanks for actually not setting me up with anyone.” And it was. He gained a new friend and Yixing called to chat when he got home, apparently also with a lull in work. All in all, a satisfying evening. Junmyeon shuffles things around, pulling out the right folder to store the work from the middle of his pile, and Minseok’s nose wrinkles in distaste.

“Well, I told you so. Why is your desk so messy?”

“Because I have a system. Can’t you go bother someone else?”

Minseok picks up the top folder and starts shuffling through. “Nope. Dae’s in Japan and I think Jongin’s on a date with a girl dad set him up with. Speaking of which…”

Junmyeon groans. “I do not need someone to be with, because I don’t need anyone, and I don’t have time anyways.” 

“No time?” Minseok’s tone is suspicious, but Junmyeon decides to ignore it.

“Yes, I’m swamped with work. Don’t you have stuff to do too?”

“Well, that’s true. I’ll see you in a little bit.” Minseok lays the files down and leaves, a bit too easily, the voice inside Junmyeon’s mind supplements. Junmyeon brushes it off as paranoia and gets back to his work. He shouldn’t have done that.

The call comes not even five minutes later. “You’re officially cleared of all work, have a good break Suho.”

“What? No, but I just started on the, the, Antares-“

Park Jeongsoon clicks her tongue, acting as if all of Junmyeon’s concerns are unwarranted. “Your father’s taking on that, you deserve to enjoy this time off.”

“But he was on the-“

“Well, it’s going to be a bit of spreading out of things, but nothing’s due tomorrow. Enjoy your summer, you kids have been working too hard.”

“Kids? What about my staff? Taeyong? Mom, you can’t-“ Junmyeon protests, but past the little bit inside of him screaming at what his family is surely going to do to him, there’s the tiniest spark jumping from joy. But for now he can’t focus on that, so he pinches the spark out and goes back to the panic.

“All on paid vacation. We told Taeyong to leave without saying goodbye and I think he’s boarding a plane to some resort right now.” 

“What? But it hasn’t even been 5 minutes since Minseok walked out!” He stands up, stretching the phone cord as far as he can without snapping it, and sure enough, the desk outside his office is empty, Taeyong gone on vacation. He clearly took all the work-related stuff with him, clearly a ploy devised by everyone to prevent Junmyeon from sneaking back to work. He can’t even see the phone, and that’s the property of the company! Instead, the only sign that he was ever there was a small post-it on the top of the desk.

“We’re flying him and his friends out for some fun.” Jeongsoon waves it off as if it was nothing. “Also your brother raised a good point about favoritism so you’re all on vacation now for the month. Can you please pick Jongdae up from the airport tomorrow at 10 and bring him over for family dinner? It’s been a long time since we had one of those.”

“Mom, you can’t just do this!” Junmyeon feels slightly like his life is in tatters. What are they planning?

“I just did. Have fun dear, try not to stress too much and just relax. Also if you aren’t out of the building in 20 minutes I can and will have you forcibly removed and driven home.” 

Junmyeon hangs up when the line falls dead, grabbing his suit coat and walking out to Taeyong’s little area to read the post-it. In Taeyong’s neat scribble is _“Sorry I left without telling you boss, but CEO Park is right. You overwork yourself too much and you need a break. Enjoy your summer off! -Taeyong_

_p.s. I would’ve told you but they were giving me a raise and you can’t lie to save your life.”_

Well, what the fuck is he supposed to do now? He knew he should’ve taken Yixing’s joke offer and gone to work under him.

Junmyeon bumps into Minseok again at the elevators, meaning that he was waiting around purely to gloat, since his offices are on 3 and 26. 

“Well, how do you like your time off?” Minseok smiles when Junmyeon seriously considers taking a swing at Minseok and then decides that he doesn’t have enough strength to actually do so. Instead, he slumps against the down button, ready to give up on life.

“Don’t you have a husband to bother instead of me?” 

“He’s in China at headquarters, but I’ll relay your message when I see him in a few hours. He’s cooking tonight and I need to be close enough to supervise as well.” Junmyeon groans a little more at the diss on his cooking, and wonders if he could curl up and die.

~~~

Surprisingly, the first text Junmyeon gets when he gets home is not anyone else from his family trying to bother him. It’s Yifan with a picture of a dog, and an explanation that he hopes that Junmyeon is feeling better, as if he suddenly developed a sixth sense for knowing that Junmyeon was unhappy. 

Junmyeon does not text him that thought, but expresses his anger at suddenly having too much free time. Yifan replies that except for the occasional job, he has nothing but free time until he finds a partner, and Junmyeon shudders at the possibility of Jeongsoon hearing it and making it into his reality. And since they’re now both free, might as well go out with two of Yifan’s friends for lunch. Junmyeon strips out of his suit as fast as he can and into something fit for vacation. The fewer reminders of his family, the better.

~~~

Junmyeon walks onto the pier, unsure of where exactly he was going. The address Yifan texted him gave him a dot out in the middle of the ocean, and the driver’s directions basically said go to this pier and drive into the sea. Thankfully, he doesn’t have to drive into the sea when he catches the top of Yifan’s head bobbing above the sea of people like a fishing float. From what Junmyeon can see, he has a pair of light yellow shades on, as well as a collar that looks like it belongs on a shirt that belongs in Hawaii and nowhere else. Junmyeon wonders if the rest of the shirt looks the same, and where he could buy one for himself.

Then Yifan, who probably actually has powers, looks over at Junmyeon, eyes smiling when they meet, and then starts parting the crowd as he makes a path towards Junmyeon. Now all Junmyeon feels is small and inadequate as Yifan easily slips through the crowd that was doing a great job of pushing Junmyeon just seconds earlier.

“Hey. Find your way okay?” Yifan asks when he finally gets to Junmyeon’s side. 

Junmyeon nods, slightly confused. “Yeah. But where is the restaurant? The maps said that it was in the middle of the water.”

“Ah, it’s on a boat. Come on.” 

Yifan turns to walk away, and Junmyeon nearly gets buried before he figures that it’s smart to actually follow Yifan to where he’s going to go. But a boat? What kind of restaurant is on a ship? Junmyeon can’t help but conjure up images of fisherman boats and dearly hopes that it’s not the reality.

“Oh right! Are you allergic to seafood or have seasickness? Sorry, I should’ve asked earlier.” Yifan stops suddenly and Junmyeon bumps straight into the obnoxious red floral patterned shirt. 

“Are you alright?” Yifan grabs Junmyeon’s arm, steadying him and saving him from being consumed away by the tide.

“Yeah, I’m sorry for bumping into you.” Junmyeon says, mind starting to fizz a little when Yifan grabs his hand.

“Sorry, can I just hold your hand? It’s easier to keep track of you.” Yifan asks, despite _already holding his hand_.

“I’m not that hard to lose track of.” Yifan gives him an annoyed look, and Junmyeon has to agree with how easily he nearly got dragged away.

“Fine. Also, I don’t get seasick and I’m not allergic to anything.”

“Oh. That’s good.” Yifan starts walking away, pulling Junmyeon through. Somehow, while they were walking, Yifan shifts it so that he’s walking slightly behind Junmyeon, almost pushing him forwards to make sure the crowd can’t close in on them. They get to the end of the pier, where the boats are kept and the crowds aren’t as big, before Yifan stops pushing Junmyeon forwards and they’re able to start walking side by side again, Yifan still keeping a tight grip on Junmyeon’s hand.

In front of a roped off section stands two men, one tall and wearing a suit, but in the material of one of Junmyeon’s favourite pairs of pajamas, made to look purposefully worn for a long time. Junmyeon’s pretty sure he’s seen him on the cover of one of those fashion magazines that Jeongsoon or Jongin follows. The other is shorter, and also wearing far more casual clothes, a generic pair of shorts and a t-shirt that doesn’t look too different from what Junmyeon was wearing. The closer he gets to them, the more familiar the shorter one gets, until their eyes meet and something clicks.

“Do Kyungsoo.” Junmyeon mutters, figuring out exactly how he knows him. And since this is apparently a generic trait among Yifan’s friend group, Kyungsoo turns to him, apparently hearing him.

“Oh! Kim Junmyeon. You’re Jongdae’s older brother, aren’t you?” 

“Wait, you know him?” The fashion model asks, taking off his shades to look at Kyungsoo, somehow growing in intimidation as he does so, revealing his deep, deep eyebags and the fierceness in his eyes.

“Yeah. I’m friends with his brother. He’s one of the Kim brothers.” Kyungsoo explains, stepping forwards. “Nice to see you again.”

“You as well.” Junmyeon answers slowly, having to quickly extract his hand from Yifan’s to shake. So Yifan is apparently friends with rich heirs?

“Well, that’s half of my introductions done.” Yifan chuckles, before frowning at the fashion model. “Where’s your other half?” 

“Didn’t want to come. He said something about wanting to meet a friend and dashed away.” The model rolls his eyes, crossing his arms.

“Well, his loss. This is my cousin’s boyfriend, Huang Zitao.” Yifan introduces, and the name finally clicks in his head. Huang Zitao, the son of one of the founder and designer of one of Asia’s top formal luxury wear labels, Guo5, and also like the five time winner of whatever model award it is. Junmyeon thinks that most of his suits were from Guo5, and that he should probably ask Yixing more about him, seeing that they’re both Chinese.

“Nice to meet you. So which one of the brothers are you?” Zitao shakes his hand, and Kyungsoo slaps his arm, causing Zitao to draw back, a frown on his face.

“You can’t just ask him which brother he is! That’s rude.” Kyungsoo hisses, and Zitao suddenly has none of his previous ferocity, all meek and pouty.

“It’s okay, I don’t mind. I’m Kim Suho.” 

“Ah.” Zitao nods, suddenly more polite. “So how did you meet Fan-ge? Was it at another art gallery that Ms. Wu purposefully sent you to?” 

“Zitao!” This time, Yifan is the one to hit Zitao, and he curls into himself even further, somehow poutier than before. “We didn’t meet because of my mom, he’s a friend I made at the movie theatre.”

The look Kyungsoo and Zitao give each other looks a little too close to what his brothers would do, but Junmyeon ignores it. Instead he asks, “What do you mean by another art gallery that Ms. Wu purposefully sent me to? Your mom makes you make friends?” 

Yifan looks distressed, and Kyungsoo steps in to explain, pushing a very eager Zitao behind him. “Well, kinda. I don’t know if you know, but Yifan is Wu Kris, the heir to Wu Corporations.”

“Really?” Yifan’s the heir to the biggest Chinese tech company? And Junmyeon thought that he was just a random dude hanging out at the movies.

“Well, I didn’t know you were one of the Kim brothers.” Yifan points out, and Junmyeon brushes it off as easily as he could. It was the most awkward thing he did all day.

“It doesn’t really matter. I’m not the oldest and my net worth is like the second lowest anyways.” It used to be the second highest, but then Minseok married Luhan and his skyrocketed. They don’t like to discuss net worth, but by the way Luhan projects himself, Junmyeon wouldn’t be surprised if they had enough money to buy half of the world. 

“You’re still one of the Kim brothers.” Yifan restates, and then they just kinda stand there staring each other down before Zitao coughs, jumping into the conversation. 

“Well, no one cares about those details. I’m hungry, I want to eat.” He grabs both Yifan and Junmyeon’s hands and starts tugging them towards the man standing in front of the roped off place, and with a nod, the man bows and raises the rope for them to go through. 

The restaurant is on a boat. Well, calling it a restaurant is generous, because it’s more like a singular very fancily decorated table with four seats on the deck, with about 5 waiters all standing around, ready to wait on them hand and foot. As soon as they see Zitao approaching, they all spring into action to unroll a huge canopy, which is quickly placed on top of the table to block the sun from their eyes.

Zitao takes a seat first, in the one furthest from their entrance, dropping Yifan and Junmyeon. Before either can do much, Kyungsoo takes the seat next to Zitao, leaving the two seats on the opposite side of the table for Junmyeon and Yifan.

They look at each other once before Junmyeon takes the seat across from Zitao, leaving the last seat open for Yifan. And even though they aren’t doing anything, Junmyeon can already feel Yifan physically shying away from him, awkwardness increasing. He’s aware that he’s not better, being that he’s doing the same, but it’s so weird, especially after just making their way through the crowd with each other.

“Alright, if you want to be awkward, you can do it somewhere else. We’re all rich at this table, and it doesn’t matter that you didn’t know. I’m hungry, and you’re making me uncomfortable.” Kyungsoo snaps, and Junmyeon immediately softens up, finding Yifan looking at him with the same guilty look when he turns to him.

“Cool, now that we got that sorted out, can we eat? I haven’t eaten anything within the last 12 hours, I’m starving for seafood.” Zitao complains, and the tension breaks as Kyungsoo and Yifan both start scolding Zitao about his intake rate. 

The food is delicious. There’s no other way to possibly describe the food besides that, because it’s the most exquisite thing Junmyeon ever had the opportunity to put into his mouth, and he regularly eats at Michelin star restaurants.

Within seconds it’s identifiable that Zitao is the youngest. Everyone dotes on him, and even if he does seem slightly bratty, he has a heart of gold, shown by the fact that he manages to wrangle Junmyeon’s phone number and a promise to attend as well as sit front and centre to watch him during his next runway from him. Zitao also pays, waving it off with a family connection and about ten conversations with each and every one of the waiters and waitresses. Kyungsoo doesn’t seem like the type who runs around with Jongdae and Baekhyun and Chanyeol, but after keeping Zitao from trying to bully information out of Junmyeon for the tenth time, it’s quite clear that he’s the calming presence for their chaos. 

Junmyeon leaves the lunch happier than he’s been in months, and when Yifan drops him off at his apartment, starts to think that this vacation might actually be a good idea for a change.

~~~

Junmyeon waits at the airport pickup area, scanning around for the slightest sign of his brother. Jongdae usually isn’t one to be late, but Junmyeon knows that his plane landed 30 minutes ago and he’s still not out with the baggage. 

Just as Junmyeon finishes debating with himself over if it’s worth it to call Jongdae or not and ends with a yes, there comes a knock on the window, and Junmyeon looks up to see one Kim Jongdae, smile beaming across his face. 

“Hyung!” Jongdae nearly knocks him into traffic and causes an accident when Junmyeon gets out of his car, but fortunately Junmyeon was expecting that and twists them so they slam up on Junmyeon’s new car instead. Unfortunately, Junmyeon hears what sounds suspiciously like a crunch, and hopes that they didn’t just break the car.

“I missed you too, Jongdae, but I don’t think I can breathe.” Junmyeon wheezes, not a sufficient amount of blood rushing to his head. Jongdae slightly lifts him up, probably grinning like the maniac that he is, barely carrying Junmyeon to the curb before dropping him down again so they don’t die by a stray car.

“Hyung!” A different voice shouts, and Junmyeon barely has enough time to place the voice before he’s colliding with his car again, one Byun Baekhyun knocking into him this time.

“Baekhyun? You’re back from Japan?” Junmyeon manages to get out as Baekhyun squeezes his rib cage too, both boys apparently determined to kill him.

“Yep! Jongdae told me that he was now on vacation so I am too! Yeollie has a few more days until he can go on vacation, but he’s not in Japan so it doesn’t matter.” Baekhyun explains, finally letting Junmyeon breathe with the assurance that Chanyeol wouldn’t just k.o. him.

“Well, I was planning on dropping Jongdae off at his apartment and then picking him up later for the dinner. Do you want me to drop you off at home too?” Junmyeon asks, popping open the trunk for Jongdae and Baekhyun to shove their suitcases in. While they’re distracted, he takes a quick look over his car. Good, no cracks or scratches, yet.

“Do we have to go home? Can’t we just hang out at your place until the dinner and then you drop me off at home?” Jongdae questions, sliding into the passenger seat before Baekhyun could steal it, ignoring Baekhyun when he sticks his tongue out and gets into the backseat.

“What about you, Baekhyun?” Junmyeon asks as he gets in and buckles up. Though Jeongsoon and Heechul aren’t strict about much, one rule that they have constantly enforced is the fact that family dinner is very strictly family only. Even Luhan had just started being allowed in, despite knowing Minseok for about as long a time as Jongin has.

“You can just drop me and my stuff off at my friend’s place. He’s hosting a dinner party and I live like two blocks down from him.” Baekhyun says, starting to spread himself out with the backseat all to himself.

“How about I drop you off at home, then drive you to your friend’s place? That’s more convenient for you.” Junmyeon suggests, starting to slowly merge into the lane now that the general plan was laid out. 

“Thank you, momyeon!” Jongdae groans, but Junmyeon smiles, unable to hate it because of the pun. It’s beautiful, Baekhyun’s learning.

“Don’t encourage him!” Jongdae physically turns back in his seat to glare properly at Baekhyun, who just smiles slyly and shifts away from hit range.

“If you make me crash, you’re both buying me a new car.” Junmyeon comments, running through a quick prayer as he gets onto the ramp for the freeway.

“We won’t.” 

Thankfully, Junmyeon does not crash. What does happen, however, is that Jongdae attempts to start a catfight with Baekhyun, and Junmyeon starts thinking twice about letting them just use up their energy in his apartment before the dinner.

“Wow, you cleaned it for once!” The first thing that falls out of Jongdae’s lips when they cross the threshold is an insult, and Junmyeon frowns. 

“I know how to keep my place clean.” He replies, offended, as Baekhyun runs a finger over the closest surface to check for dust.

“You hired a cleaning service?” 

Junmyeon has no choice but to admit his secret, and Jongdae scoffs.

“I knew it. You can’t keep it clean on your own.”

“Well, I tried!” In the meantime, Baekhyun had wandered into Junmyeon’s living room and was looking through all of Junmyeon’s things. The bookcase full of books, the little souvenirs from all the places they had been, the pictures hanging on the wall. 

Baekhyun pauses in front of the newest family photo, the huge one from Minseok and Luhan’s wedding that takes up probably a lot more room than it should, but Junmyeon refuses to make it smaller. Luhan’s seated in the centre next to Minseok, who had managed to acquire a flower crown during the process and has it adorning his head, both hands entwined with Luhan’s. Jeongsoon and Heechul are seated right next to them, Heechul having just pulled a funny face before the cameras snapped to get Jeongsoon to laugh, not enough time having passed for her to recover. And lined up from left to right are Junmyeon, Jongdae and Jongin all in birth order, all three of them mid-smile as they toss flower petals into the air to float down onto the two couples sitting.

“You guys all look so happy.” Baekhyun comments, brushing the corner where Jongin had accidentally smeared some sauce on the last time he visited, and Junmyeon had somehow never noticed until right this second.

“Well, we are.” Jongdae says, draping an arm over Baekhyun. “The infamous Kim brothers, aren’t we?”

“Yeah. Wish I had some more time with my brother after he got married.” Baekhyun mutters, and Jongdae pulls Baekhyun into him, whispering things that Junmyeon can’t hear.

“Well, if you two are hungry, I’m going to heat up some food from the fridge. If not, my bed and the spare bed are always open.” Junmyeon leaves the friends alone to do whatever they need to do, while he excuses himself to the kitchen. There’s nothing but old leftovers, but they haven’t passed two days, and it’s safer than Junmyeon attempting to cook them something himself. He really needs to take those cooking lessons they keep on trying to send him to, or maybe they should all just stop pressuring him on his love life and start pressuring him about his cooking skills.

When Junmyeon has the containers of food warmed again, he pokes his head out into the living room to find no one around. After a little searching, he finds the duo curled up in his bed, completely tired out already, and possibly getting the first moment to properly rest in weeks. He smiles and tucks the two in tighter. They should get some sleep, they both have parties to attend, after all.  


Baekhyun wakes up first, padding out to the living room where Junmyeon is finally catching up on his list of books to read now that he’s on break and has the time. Baekhyun isn’t completely energetic yet, the last bits of sleep still clinging to him, and he’s perfectly content to lean into Junmyeon and sleep a little more to the sound of slowly turning pages, like how they would do when they were younger. It’s only when the alarm Junmyeon set at 5:30 rings does Baekhyun get up, fully stretch out, and then blink himself awake within 30 seconds.

“Are you hungry?” Junmyeon asks, tone a little quieter than usual to avoid disturbing Jongdae until he absolutely has to.

Baekhyun considers for a bit, but ultimately shakes his head no. “I can just inhale some food at the party later. Do Kyungsoo, the art museum dude, is going to be there and he’s great at cooking. I’d bet that they probably already got him to cater the whole thing. God, I can’t wait to taste a bite of what Soo made.”

“Kyungsoo can cook?” Junmyeon asks. He would feel jealous if he didn’t know that he has absolutely no talent in the kitchen, but he didn’t peg Kyungsoo for someone who would be good in the kitchen.

“The best. We always joke that if he was a little less dedicated to art, he would’ve become a Michelin star chef.” Baekhyun’s eyes light up brighter, and his stomach actually growls.

“Well, go wake Jongdae and we can get you to the party sooner.” Without having to be told twice, Baekhyun bounces towards where Jongdae is still asleep, evil glint in his eye. Junmyeon prefers to not deal with his siblings when waking. Though Minseok and Jongdae are both morning people, waking them if they fall asleep before bedtime is horrendous, and usually a task Junmyeon chooses to pass on. 

A sound that implies Baekhyun just jumped onto Jongdae occurs, and then seconds later, a sound that implies Jongdae had just bitten off Baekhyun’s head follows. Jongdae walks out, mussed up hair and all, to grab a cup of water and down it before heading back into Junmyeon’s room. He emerges with Baekhyun, alive and whole, one of Junmyeon’s shirts on, and a considerably better personality than how he had walked in with.

“So, are we ready to go?” Junmyeon picks up his keys and wallet, already shoving them into his pockets.

“What, you’re not going to change?” Jongdae scoffs, looking down at Junmyeon for being lazy.

“Everyone knows what I look like. Show up in a suit isn’t going to do a thing.” Junmyeon replies. Jongdae gives him a suspicious look, clearly haven’t cleared up all of the sleep yet. “Plus, I already did my hair.” 

“That’s what you were doing while we were sleeping.” Baekhyun exclaims, like he wasn’t just sitting by Junmyeon for most of the afternoon, sleeping through his reading. Junmyeon resists the urge to hurt him as well, but by the laughter echoing through them, he didn’t properly keep the annoyance off his face.

~~~

Baekhyun gets into the back of the car, buttoning up his shirt and pouting as he goes. Jongdae had stolen the front seat as soon as Baekhyun got out, not bothering to help him drag his suitcase up in favour of taking the seat.

“Do you have to change in the car? Couldn’t you have like changed in hyung’s like the rest of us?” Jongdae remarks, watching as Baekhyun buckles up over his half naked chest to continue buttoning underneath.

“Junmyeon-hyung! I’m getting bullied!” 

Junmyeon sighs when Jongdae sticks his tongue at his best friend. “Baekhyun, button up. Jongdae, again, if we crash, you’re buying me a car.”

“And again, we won’t crash. Besides, we’re already here.” The GPS gets to Jongdae’s line a second late, and Junmyeon turns into the little driveway leading straight to the front door of one of the largest apartment systems in Seoul, which also happens to be one that they don’t own and he has no experience with. He barely stepped on the breaks before a bellhop is already opening the door for Baekhyun, who steps out, thankfully finally decent. Jongdae rolls down the window to help Junmyeon with the view, or perhaps just shout a goodbye or something. Then Junmyeon sees Baekhyun’s face light up and he heads for the man standing behind the bellhop, who is wearing some suspiciously familiar looking pants. He moves forwards and into view to greet Baekhyun, and Junmyeon wonders what kind of a coincidence this could be.

“Yifan!” Baekhyun hurls himself at Yifan, but unlike Junmyeon, he has a warning and about half a head’s height to properly dig in his heels and keep from being knocked back.

“Baekhyun, you made it!” Yifan smiles, releasing Baekhyun from the hug, or maybe he was the one being released from the hug. “Now, where are your suitcases?”

“What suitcases?” Baekhyun asks, having completely forgotten events that happened not even five minutes prior.

“Your cases. You texted me that you wanted me to come down and help you bring your suitcases up.” Yifan’s eyes dart to the trunk and realisation hits Baekhyun, washing over his face slowly.

“You idiot. Did you forget that we were dropping your cases off for you?” Jongdae interrupts the reunion, calling out and bringing Yifan’s attention onto them.

“Oh, Junmyeon.” Yifan waves a little at Junmyeon, who now has no choice but to do the same.

“Hi Yifan.” Baekhyun and Jongdae’s eyes both dart between them, clearly looking confused.

“Wait, you know each other?” Baekhyun questions, one hand still slightly grabbing on Yifan’s shirt.

“We met not long ago.” Yifan replies, realising that Baekhyun was attached to him and starting the removal process.

“Yeah. Yifan, this is my younger brother, Kim Jongdae.” Yifan nods, doing almost a sort of bowing as he tries to introduce himself. There’s a solid second where he can’t figure out if he should use the hand to keep pulling Baekhyun off of him or to shake Jongdae’s, and eventually he decides to give up with the Baekhyun situation and just shake.

“Jongdae, this is Wu Yifan, my new friend.” Jongdae accepts Yifan’s hand for a handshake, nearly hanging half out his window to do so now.

“Ah, it’s nice to meet you.” Jongdae nods in agreement with Yifan, finally having a rare moment where he doesn’t know what to say, or at least doesn’t open his mouth, letting Yifan gently stumble over his words. Junmyeon thinks he hears a bit of an accent now that he’s conscious of what Yifan’s saying, and wonders how he didn’t hear it before.

“Do you two want to come up to my party? It’s not really a party, more like a gathering, and of the 4 people there you already met 2. I could have Mark drive your car into the garage.” Yifan offers, and Baekhyun throws an arm over his shoulders with their new position bent, looking through the car window.

“We would love to, but we’re on our way to a family dinner. Otherwise we would definitely go up.” Junmyeon declines, actually a bit regretful about this. Yifan nods, not exactly much else he can say.

“Hyung. Sorry to ruin the mood, but we kinda have to go unless you plan on making me late.” Jongdae butts in, and Junmyeon nods, seeing how the time turned from 6:04 to 6:05, and being über aware that they only had 25 minutes to get to their parent’s suite.

“Oh, well then goodbye.” Yifan starts waving them off, and Junmyeon gets in a good wave before he shifts gear to leave.

“I’ll call you after it’s over.” Jongdae tells Baekhyun, before Junmyeon steps on the gas perhaps a bit harder than he should’ve, merging into the road in one go before he is aware of the miracle that just occurred, and the traffic laws he probably just broke.

“Wow, didn’t know you had it in you.” Jongdae teases after he drops his hand from clinging onto the bar above the seat for dear life, and Junmyeon feels himself slightly pink.

“Shut up.” 

“Also, Wu Yifan? Your new friend?” Jongdae’s tone is ten different kinds of suggestive that Junmyeon does not need right now, especially when fighting to fit what is a 30-40 minutes drive into 25, even though it seems like it’s leaning towards 40. Fuck the evening rush traffic. 

“We literally met less than a week ago. And we’re just friends.” Junmyeon restates firmly. This is why he didn’t bother telling Minseok about it, and he is not going to have his work undone by Jongdae.

“The way you were nearly laid on my lap to see out the window to talk to him says differently.” Jongdae suggests, and if Junmyeon wasn’t driving, he would’ve glared. But sacrifices have to be made in order to not die, and Junmyeon settles for giving him a good one through the mirror.

“We’re dating about as much as you and Baekhyun and Chanyeol are. Stop making a mess out of my love life as well.” 

Jongdae shrugs. “I’m just saying. Besides, I think we’re going to be late.”

~~~

They were late. The 40 minutes drive turned from a 40 minutes drive slowly to a 50 minutes drive, and before Junmyeon knew it, they were finally pulling into the reserved parking spot in the familiar building at 7:05.

“I knew this was going to happen as soon as you said you wanted to drive.” Jongdae grumbles, slamming the car door and heading towards the elevators without a backward look.

“Okay, I’m sorry but I thought that traffic would be lighter.” 

“And then you followed the GPS and turned onto the main road. In rush hour!” Junmyeon winces. That might’ve not been his best decision, ever.

“Okay, I’m sorry for that too.” Junmyeon apologises as the elevator arrives and they both get in, automatically hitting the button for the highest floor on instinct. 

“You should be.” Jongdae frowns, very against being late.

“I’m sorry, I should’ve dropped you off first so you weren’t late.” Junmyeon wraps Jongdae into a hug, trying to get his younger brother to smile again.

“But then you would’ve shown up as we were finishing dessert.” Jongdae points out, and Junmyeon slowly nods, not much that he can do to deny it.

“Yeah.”

Jongdae bursts into an annoyed smile at the confession and Junmyeon steals a few more seconds of the hug before letting him go, goal achieved.

“Well, at least you admit it.” The elevator opens, thankfully picking no one up and sending them straight to the top. There’s only one apartment on this floor, and Jongdae heads for the finger id without hesitation, opening the door effortlessly.

“Well, so nice of you two to grace us with your presence.” Heechul snarks, and everyone looks over, clearly hanging around doing nothing much in an attempt to wait for them. This is so much better than just sending Baekhyun off alone, because then they definitely would’ve started without waiting for him, but they can’t do that when Jongdae is also missing.

“There was traffic.” Junmyeon makes excuses as his dad pulls him in for a hug, Jongdae being quickly devoured by his mom looking after her longest missing. Heechul rolls his eyes, having heard it all, and with a fluid motion that prevents him from explaining, Heechul exchanges Junmyeon for Jongdae, shoving Junmyeon straight into his mother’s path.

“You’re both finally here! How’s vacation treating you?” Jeongsoon pulls Junmyeon in for a hug before stepping back to check on the state of his face. While Junmyeon confesses that he has lost the darker rings around his eyes because of the sleep he was finally able to get, that was basically all that the time off had done for him so far.

“It would be better if I knew what to do.” Junmyeon mentions, and then sees his mother’s expression and wants to immediately take it back.

“Well, you could go out and find a boyfriend.” 

Thankfully, before Junmyeon could try and find more excuses, Heechul butts in. “Honey, it’s fun to berate Jun about his lack of a love life, but we should start bringing the food out. I’m hungry.”  


“Oh yeah. Everyone head to the dining room! We’ll be out with the food soon.” Jeongsoon calls, excusing herself to help Heechul. Before Junmyeon could sigh in relief, she turns her attention onto him, warning him with a “Don’t think you’ve escaped that easily.”

At the mention of food, Jongin pops up out of whatever seat he had miraculously shrunk himself to hide in. Junmyeon immediately starts making his way over to his baby brother, dodging Minseok and Luhan conversing with Jongdae on the way. 

“Jongin!” Jongin finally turns his attention to the newcomers in the room and barely takes three steps before he’s able to bury his face in Junmyeon, pulling him in for a hug.

“Hyung.” Jongin greets, mouthful of Junmyeon’s shirt as he somehow manages to make himself shorter than Junmyeon, despite years of rubbing that victory viciously in his face.

“Move over, I want a hug.” Jongdae whines, tapping on Junmyeon’s shoulder and being aggressive in a way that makes Junmyeon feel like he’s going to be ripped away.

“Wait your turn.” Junmyeon scolds him, but as soon as Jongin loosens the force of his hug, Jongdae’s already stepping into his arms and pushing Junmyeon out. “Rude.”

Jongdae only sticks his tongue out, employing the most efficient insult known to mankind.

Junmyeon rolls his eyes, turning to the last two people he haven’t greeted. Minseok looks like he’s got something shady in mind, so Junmyeon side-steps him and goes for Luhan instead, the far nicer equivalent to his brother. 

“Luhan! How have you been?” Luhan accepts the hug, looking a bit confused as to why Junmyeon was hugging him instead of Minseok.

“I’ve been good. How have you been? Has it been too stressful?” Luhan asks, side-eyeing his exasperated husband.

“Well, I’m certainly glad to see that my family is already throwing me away for my husband.” Minseok comments, eyes flickering to the two Jongs for backup. Instead of finding help, Junmyeon’s younger brothers turn away, heading towards the dining room while enthusiastically discussing something that sounds extremely arbitrary.

“That’s because Luhan-hyung is a lot nicer than you.” Luhan smiles at this despite Junmyeon breaking his no hyung rule, positioning himself to usher Junmyeon towards the dining room as well.

“I told you that I’m nice, Minseok!” He says brightly, and Minseok rolls his eyes. Luhan ignored his husband and turns to Junmyeon, picking a small box about the size of a computer monitor up from the floor and handing it to him. “Yixing wanted me to bring you these snacks, he said that you really like them.”

“That’s because you didn’t grow up with these people.” Minseok says, cutting off Junmyeon’s thanks as he moves the box to on top of his shoes at the shoe cabinet. Luhan then starts herding Junmyeon towards the dining room, but still requires Minseok’s assistance to turn down the right hallway so he doesn’t accidentally wind up in Heechul’s study. 

“You won’t believe how mean he is to his employees, and to literally everyone he works with.” Minseok says to Junmyeon, hands still on Luhan’s shoulders to make sure he doesn’t get lost. “I think someone actually came to ask me for a raise because they were scared of asking you.” 

“They’re supposed to go to HR for that, not me or you. Besides, I am nice! I tolerate them bullying me. My secretary deleted my schedule because she thought I needed a vacation. Minseok, you have to help me find where she hid the backup, even if I don’t think I actually have anything in the near future.” Luhan complains, deferring to Minseok, even if Minseok doesn’t have the ability to pull rank on him.

“Your secretary too? Mine took away all of my files and then my parents flew him out to a resort at someone’s beckon.” Junmyeon says, shooting a glare at Minseok, who smiles innocently. 

“Well, you needed to rest. Both of you. A week off won’t kill either of you, so you should both stop complaining. Besides, we still need to get you a date, Jun.” Minseok somehow manages to turn everything back onto Junmyeon, somehow timing it to the exact second Jongdae and Jongin finishes talking, attracting the attention of the other two.

“Even if I did need a break, and I don’t feel that I do, why do all of you have to be off to bother me? Not you Luhan, but everyone else.” Maybe if he avoids the topic, no one will notice and they’ll go onto a much better thing.

“Look, I didn’t suggest that we all go on break. That was just a pleasant surprise.” Minseok raises his hands in innocence, and Luhan turns towards him, confused.

“Wait, you’re on vacation? Why didn’t you tell me yesterday? I could’ve taken time off to join you.” 

“Yeah, I know you would, which is why I finished your files and told your secretary to cancel your schedule. Surprise!” Luhan’s jaw near falls open, flabbergasted. There’s a mixture of emotions running across his face, and before anything else happens, Luhan leads Minseok out of the room, saving Junmyeon from an attack on a more vulnerable front.

“Well, if mom and dad gave only you a week off, don’t you think that they’re declaring who’s their favourite child too easily?” Jongdae pipes up, ignoring Luhan and Minseok. 

“Wait, you’re the one who told mom and dad to give us all the break? Were you all planning this, this thing for me?” Junmyeon decides that it’s probably best he takes a seat, a lot of emotions running through his head, the most prominent being a form of betrayal. 

“Well, I didn’t know beforehand.” Jongin raises his hand, and Junmyeon stands up, needing to go to the one person who still loves him. “But you did need a break hyung, I’m glad that they organised this.”

Nevermind. There’s no such thing as loyalty in this household.

“Anyways, we were talking about how you still need a date, Junmyeon.” Jongdae returns to the topic in the room, the one that Junmyeon sorely wishes was not. God, do they still need to keep mentioning it?

“What about you? Why isn’t they trying to get either of you a cute person to date as well?” Junmyeon grumbles, sinking into his seat and leaning back. Seriously, out of the three bachelors in the room, why did everyone pick on him?

“I think it’s because of Baekhyun and Chanyeol. I think she just kinda assumed that you three were in a sort of a relationship and that she doesn’t need to worry about you.” Minseok walks back into the room, hand in hand with a much more calm looking Luhan. 

“They’re just my best friends. But yeah, I can see why she thinks that. I’d probably marry them if there was no one better.” Jongdae nods seriously, and Junmyeon seriously doubts once more if their relationship was 100% platonic.

“I’m just lucky that I got someone who is cute and willing to clean up after himself.” Luhan smiles down at his husband, previous trouble apparently completely gone. 

“Nice to see that all I am is cute.” Luhan jokes, receiving playful punches from Minseok. On the lips. Very gently. With his lips. They’re making out in the dining room.

Junmyeon averts his eyes from the disgustingly married couple in the room and manages to land his eyes on the only other member with his eyes also suspiciously averted. Jongin’s playing with a chopstick, trying his best to seem completely distracted even though Junmyeon knows he’s completely in tune with the conversation. Sure, Jongdae was distracted for a whole day by trying to figure out a little child’s toy, but Jongin knows what a singular chopstick does. At least he hopes he does. 

“So how are you and your girlfriend doing?” Junmyeon coaxes, practically seeing from the way Jongin is trying to stay away from the conversation that they couldn’t be in the best condition.

“Hmm? It was okay. I don’t think we’re going to be a good match though, so I should probably just take a little time off.” Jongin places the chopstick down, and his answer is quickly accepted. There’s no need to pressure someone if they don’t want to do anything, and a split would obviously have him a little upset. At least it wasn’t too serious, so Jongin wouldn’t be sad for too long.

“Well, when are you going to find a boyfriend? Or at least go on a date at all, hyung, you lonely single?” Jongdae brings the conversation back full circle, looking at Junmyeon like he owed him something. Junmyeon was pretty sure he had paid Jongdae back for that coffee he bought on his card, so the only thing Jongdae could be searching for is an answer.

“I’m not a lonely single, and I don’t want to date anyone.”

“Your excuses get lamer and lamer now that you can’t use you’re busy.” Jongin joins in on the bullying, and Junmyeon feels attacked.

“I’m serious! I don’t want to date anyone. You guys can stop the joke of trying to push people onto me.” Junmyeon tries again, speaking to the deaf.

“The joke got a lot funnier when he finally figured out he could say no.” Minseok tells Luhan, as if he hadn't been around watching Junmyeon’s relationships crash and burn faster than a bird on fire.

“Yeah. Darling, you could’ve told me that you didn’t like girls sooner so you wouldn’t have had to gone on those dates.” Jeongsoon inserts herself with a tray full of dishes, placing them one by one onto the table as Heechul follows behind with some more.

Junmyeon’s immediately thrown back in time with the smell of his mom’s cooking, reminders of previous family dinners when everyone had set everything aside to make it. But even the good memories of the dinners aren’t enough to block out the horrid recollections of what had happened when Jeongsoon had just first started setting her sons up with people and Heechul only viewed it as comedic relief. They were so bad that Junmyeon had burned through all his plans A to Z on avoiding them, and was about five steps away from faking an injury to get out of everything. 

“Mom, I don’t want to go on dates with anyone, period.” Junmyeon complains, adding a bit of a whine into his voice. 

“But you have nothing to do during your vacation. Might as well, right?” Heechul suggests as Jeongsoon puts her tray down on Heechul’s little food cart, and then pushes it off to the side as she takes her seat. Junmyeon sighs, getting up to give Jongdae back his usual seat and take his next to Jongin. Well, Junmyeon can’t deny that he doesn’t have anything else to do, and it actually has been awhile since the last time he went on a date.

“Fine. I’ll do it.” 

A cheer rises from the table, and Heechul leads Jongin and Jongdae in clapping. Junmyeon wants to take his words back but Jeongsoon is already pulling out her phone, ready to text Junmyeon the details.

“Perfect! I’m so glad you agreed, his name is Jo Joonhyuk, and he’s the only child of the KlEan skincare CEO. I already have a meeting arranged for you two, have fun!”

“I’m pretty sure he’s a bit of a player, so be careful.” Heechul adds with a wink.

When Junmyeon told his parents that he is interested in boys, it was only to get them off his back in trying to set him up with all the young heiresses in the area, wonderful people, but people he would rather stay on only friends terms with. What he didn't expect was for them to then turn their attention almost as aggressively to all the young heirs, and now he can barely attend a function without seeing about five of his exs, people who he gave in about just seeing once, and now he has to avoid for the rest of his life to avoid embarrassment.

But now, Junmyeon just buries his head in his arms to wait for the topic to finally change, wondering if he could opt out of this family. Well, just for three seconds to catch his breath. There’s no way he’ll be able to leave the ones he loves.

~~~

With the sudden amount of free time, Junmyeon finds that he’s spending a lot more time with Yifan than anyone, probably because he’s the only friend Junmyeon has who is also forcefully on vacation. Despite that, he really has no clue why he’s suddenly on a yacht that he doesn’t own, getting sunscreen rubbed into his back while he steals grapes off the vine.

“Turn your head a little, I need to get the other part of the back of your neck.” Yifan orders, and Junmyeon obeys, swallowing his bite of grape before doing so. 

“Thanks for this.” Junmyeon sighs as he feels the bar of sunscreen coating his skin, and then hands rubbing more lotion into his neck, also managing to release any sort of tension and stress that had been building up in his body.

“Oh no problem. It’s always dangerous to be in the sun for too long without sunscreen on, skin cancer caused by the sun is no joke.” Yifan replies seriously, and Junmyeon scoffs.

“Not just that. I mean inviting me onto this yacht to have fun.” Junmyeon feels hands leave his body and decides that it means Yifan is done with the lotioning up of his back. Sure enough, Yifan’s pulling his hair into a ponytail as he sits up, and Junmyeon decides to just borrow Yifan’s sunglasses off his face.

“Oh, it’s fine. Originally Zitao and Sehun were supposed to throw a party, but then they changed their mind at the last minute so they’re letting me use their reservation. I don’t like partying on a boat, but sailing around in the sun doesn’t sound that bad.” Yifan grasps around blindly behind him for the hair tie that he put down in order to pick up the sunscreen for Junmyeon, and so Junmyeon hands it to him, letting Yifan finally tie his hair into a ponytail. “Maybe we could go swimming if you want. I have a lot of time and not much to do with it.”

“If that isn’t relatable.” Junmyeon lies down lengthwise, soaking up the rays of the sun without the worries of skin cancer now that Yifan has helped him with that. There’s a gentle thumping next to him that is Yifan also moving to lie down next to him, and with the soft rocking of the boat and the sun shining so warmly on his skin, Junmyeon feels like he could fall asleep.

“Do you want to sail forwards a bit so we move a little more? Might as well get our money’s worth if we’re going to sleep.” Yifan’s voice is rough and sounds about as drowsy as Junmyeon feels. Junmyeon makes a kind of humming noise that is supposed to signify agreement, and after a quick few seconds of Yifan moving to tell the captain and like the one other crew member on the ship, they start sailing forwards, like the rock of a cradle above the sea.

~~~

When Junmyeon wakes later, he’s blanketed by the warmth of the sun, under a small tent that had been so kindly set up for them by the crew members. Yifan’s still asleep, surprisingly spread out for someone who looks like they don’t move in their sleep. 

The boat is completely still besides the little splashes of waves patting the sides, a small motion that’s almost completely unnoticeable. Junmyeon might still have the shades covering his eyes, but it’s so warm and bright that he wants to get out of here, and maybe into somewhere dark and cool. Waking up in these circumstances aren’t the best.

Then a hand extends a drink to Junmyeon, and he looks up to see the taller of the two boys whom they were introduced to when they boarded the ship. Taehyung, that was probably his name.

“Thank you.” Junmyeon has to clear his throat in order to get the words out, and takes the orange concoction to assist in the process.

“I know I’m technically not supposed to, but can I sit and talk with you? It’s a bit boring watching you guys sleep.” Junmyeon nods, taking a sip of the drink as the boy sits down in front of him, a boxy grin adorning his face. For something that looks like it’s sweeter than the artificial sickly sweet of those children’s fever medicines that taste like cherry, it goes down quite easily. It’s not an overwhelming orange like Junmyeon had expected from the colour, but a gentle sweetness, like a hint of orange sunrise. “So what’s your name?” 

“Kim Junmyeon. You’re Taehyung, right?” Taehyung nods, grin growing again.

“You remembered my name! Very few people actually know my name for more than three seconds after I tell it to them, they’re usually more interested in the alcohol. By the way, how does the drink taste?” 

“It tastes amazing. How did you know that I was going to like it?” Junmyeon asks, carefully setting the drink onto the white of the plastic under him. Taehyung beams, almost slightly rocking back with excitement.

“Jiminnie made it! He has the best knack for figuring out what drinks people would like. I’m just the messenger.” Taehyung turns around as if sensing something, and Junmyeon looks up to see the other crew member standing a bit off, watching them. He, Jiminnie? kinda pretends that he wasn’t actually watching the two of them until Taehyung waves a hand to beckon him over. “He’s actually Jimin, and he’s clearly a lot better at following the rules than I am.”

In addition to what seems like the standard uniform of white shirts and shorts that everyone else was sprouting, Jimin wears a light beret on his head, settling nicely on his wispy blond hair. At Taehyung’s beckon, Jimin slowly moves into the shade, but doesn’t sit, standing two steps away from Taehyung. Junmyeon takes another sip of the drink as Taehyung tries to convince Jimin to sit with light tugs at the bottom of his shorts.

“This really tastes good. Thank you for making me this.” Jimin smiles under the compliment, slightly ducking his head as he accepts it.

“Well, you were bound to be thirsty when you woke up.” Junmyeon nods at this impeccable logic, Jimin feeling comfortable enough to lower himself to the ground next to Taehyung.

“It’s so nice watching you two on this cruise. Usually it’s so chaotic since people usually just rent for a party and then we’re stuck serving and helping people off and then cleaning up. Cleaning up sucks.” Taehyung says, and Jimin nods along in agreement. 

“I wish that I had a boyfriend who would rent a yacht for us to just float around on.” Jimin sighs, and Junmyeon wonders how Jimin jumped onto that topic.

“I don’t. My family wants for me to find love, and it’s honestly a little annoying.” Junmyeon complains, swirling his drink around to hear the clinking of ice cubes against the glass.

“Wait, so you and him aren’t dating?” Jimin points to Yifan in incredulously confusion, and Junmyeon stares back with probably is an identical look on his face. 

“Yifan? Oh, we’re not dating at all. We’re just friends.” 

“Oh, I’m so sorry! I shouldn’t have assumed.” Jimin bows in apology, actually looking so remorseful that Junmyeon feels bad.

“It’s okay. You didn’t know.” Junmyeon tries to reassure him, but Jimin just stands up, bowing and quickly walking away. He looks at Taehyung when Jimin disappears into the cabin, and Taehyun looks back at him, a regretful look on his face.

“Ah, he’s a bit sensitive about the state of relationships. Sometimes if you say that the wrong person is with someone else, you’ll end up in big trouble.” Taehyung gets up as well, giving Junmyeon a reassuring smile. “I’ll go talk to him, don’t let us spoil your fun.”

“You sure? Is there anyway I can help reassure him?” Junmyeon pushing up onto his knees ready to get up, but Taehyung just shakes his head.

“I’ll just talk to him, you don’t need to do anything.” Taehyun disappears into the cabin as well, and Junmyeon sits back down, nursing the drink. Well, that was awkward.

Yifan turns a bit, drawing one arm closer to his body and more or less throwing the other one out, hitting Junmyeon’s knee with a suddenness that makes him flinch. Junmyeon calms his startled heart and freezes in place, but it’s already too late, and Yifan’s stirring, drawing his arm back and slowly waking up, rubbing at his eyes and stretching out his arms.

“You’re awake?” Junmyeon asks, as Yifan groans as he tries to bat at the sun, as if trying to turn it off. Junmyeon slips the sunglasses off and blinks in the suddenness of the light. Well, he’ll survive. “Here.” Junmyeon slips the sunglasses on for Yifan, if a bit crooked, and Yifan blinks a few more times, trying to get his bearings. “Better?”

Yifan nods, slowly sitting up. His hair is poking up in weird places, weird bumps instead of his originally smooth ponytail. Junmyeon hands Yifan his drink, knowing that it’ll probably do him more good, and Yifan gladly takes it. Junmyeon scoots over to just slightly behind Yifan, gently tugging the hair tie out. As soon as Yifan feels the pressure on his head, he tilts his head back, allowing for better access to his hair. Junmyeon might’ve not had many chances to style longer hair, but it can’t be that hard, can it?

They sit in silence for a bit, enjoying the warmth and the luxury of being able to do nothing. Junmyeon combs through Yifan’s hair with his fingers, enjoying how soft it feels. And he looks good with it no matter what he does, pulled up in a ponytail or down, barely brushing his shoulders. Junmyeon crawls over to look at Yifan properly and check if the bumps are still noticeable after the combing, and finds Yifan’s eyes closed under his yellow tinted shades. 

And as he watches, Yifan opens his eyes and stares into his. Was Yifan’s eyes always so sparkly or is it just the glasses? 

“What are you looking at?” There’s nothing but curiosity in his eyes, and even though the words could be really rude, Junmyeon feels nothing but the gentle calmness of the day.

“Your hair. It’s nice.” Yifan reaches a hand back to touch his hair with a kind of surprise, like he had never thought about it before.

“Oh. Yeah, I spent a long time growing it out. Do you want to do anything besides just sitting here? It’ll be nice to go swimming, won’t it?” The water does look really appealing, and Junmyeon didn’t come into this yacht just to sunbathe. 

“Sure. Are you good at swimming?” Junmyeon asks, looking over to the water shimmering, but making no move to get up.

“I can do enough to save someone who’s drowning. You?” Junmyeon looks back to see Yifan tying his hair back into a ponytail with the hair tie left on the ground. The drink is finished, empty cup next to Yifan’s left foot, and Junmyeon makes a mental note to ask Jimin if he could make another one later.

“I was on my school’s swim team as captain for a few years. I just haven’t swum recently.” Junmyeon suddenly realised how suffocating working and doing nothing else was. Sure, he goes to the movies and works out with his brothers, but he stopped swimming, and his parents used to joke that he would just become a world athlete instead of inheriting the company. God, Junmyeon’s going to have to go home and find out where the nearest pool is and get a membership to swim.

“Well, aren’t you going to get in?” Yifan asks, standing up, hair tied again and sunglasses off.

“Yeah, but I'm too lazy to move.” Junmyeon flops a hand at the water and hears Yifan sigh behind him. Then there’s the rustling of Yifan’s clothes and Junmyeon turns around to see Yifan squatting down, eyes level once again with him.

Yifan reaches out for him, and it takes a stupidly long time before Junmyeon realises what Yifan was intending to do.

“Ah! Put me down!” Junmyeon grabs one of Yifan’s arms in a way that twists his own as Yifan lifts him into the air.

“You said you were lazy.” Yifan has a shit-eating grin on, and Junmyeon rearranges his arms so that he’s clinging to Yifan’s neck, a vivid image of exactly what Yifan plans to do.

“I don’t mean throw me into the water! Yifan!” Yifan walks towards the stairs on the side of the boat, and Junmyeon tightens his arms and shuts his eyes as they get closer. He’s been through this too many times, he doesn’t need to do it again.

Yifan doesn’t respond, silent anticipation only growing as he walks closer to the edge. There’s a second where Junmyeon thinks he’s safe and Yifan’s going to turn around and walk back by the fact he stopped. He loosens his arms for the smallest bit of a fraction and opens one of his eyes, only to be greeted by the widest smirk he’s ever seen on Yifan, and then he’s being swung back before Yifan lets go.

Junmyeon curves up on instinct, landing in the water and sinking slightly down with the force. The water’s exactly as cold as Junmyeon expected, and when he opens his eyes, he sees the blurry outline of the boat and what looks like Yifan, descending the stairs of the boat, dipping a toe into the water.

Then Junmyeon feels his lungs reminding him that he doesn’t go swimming on a daily basis anymore and he swims up, breaking the surface right next to Yifan’s slightly apologetic face.

“Sorry about tossing you in, want to get out?” Yifan holds a hand out, instantly falling into the most classic of water traps. By the fact that he tries to retract his hand, it dawns on him what a stupid thing he just did. But Junmyeon has already grabbed his hand and yanks hard, and Yifan comes flying towards him. Junmyeon surfaces again next to Yifan, now with a grumpy expression as he wipes the water off his face and leans on the bottom step of the boat, not pleased with the turn of events.

“Now we’re even.” Yifan splashes water at him in response, and Junmyeon splashes back. It quickly escalates into a water fight, as Junmyeon quickly learns that Yifan is as good as he says, matching him stroke to stroke. After getting yanked underwater for the third time, Junmyeon finally feels that he’s had enough, leaning on the edge of the boat as he catches his breath. 

“Truce so we can get out?” Yifan offers, looking equally exhausted a few meters away.

“Deal. God, I’m hungry.” Junmyeon pulls himself up into the boat first, and gets greeted by Taehyung’s hand once again, helping him up. “Oh thank you.”

“Well, we could get off to get some lunch and then come back for sailing around in the afternoon.” Yifan suggests, accepting Jimin’s hand up and a towel he offers. ”Thanks. We do have this rented for the whole day.” 

“Then go eat? But do you have anywhere you particularly want to go?” Junmyeon towels his hair off, Taehyung holding out another one of those brilliant orange drinks.

“If you don’t have anywhere, I know this really good place by the pier.” Taehyung pipes up, enduring a quick hit by Jimin for the trouble.

Yifan shakes his head, apparently with no idea. “No. Do you?”

“Not really. What do you suggest Taehyung?” Junmyeon turns to him, and Taehyung lights up.

“It’s a small place run by my friends, but they have some of the best food I’ve ever tasted. I can get my brother to sail us over right now if you want.” Taehyung hands over the drink when he sees Junmyeon’s hands are free, Jimin handing Yifan a more purple drink slightly behind them. 

“Your brother’s sailing this boat?” Taehyung nods in confirmation, and points at the captain through the window, who is apparently Taehyung’s brother. “Well, that sounds great. Yifan?”

“Holy shit is this drink good.” Yifan holds the drink out to Junmyeon, beckoning for him to taste. “Did you make this?” He asks Jimin, and Jimin nods, a small smile coming onto his face. 

The drink is sweeter than what Junmyeon’s, and instead of having a zing of sourness that hits with the sweet aftertaste, there’s something that tastes like raspberry, or a sour strawberry buried in the drink. Junmyeon prefers his own, but Jimin’s probably counting on that.

“So did you say something earlier?” Yifan asks, and Junmyeon’s startled out of his dissertation of the drink.

“Hmm?” Junmyeon pretends that he didn’t just drink about half of Yifan’s already small glass, as he hands it back to him. Thankfully, Yifan doesn’t notice.

“What did you say earlier? I was busy getting Jimin’s recipe for this drink.” Yifan repeats, and Junmyeon runs through his memory of the past few minutes really quickly. 

“Oh right. Do you want to go have lunch at the place Taehyung’s recommending for us? They can sail us straight there.” 

“Yeah. If you want to.” 

Junmyeon nods to Taehyung, who beams before dashing away into the cabin, probably to inform his brother. 

“Then can you please tell the chef that I say hi? His name is Kim Seokjin.” Jimin asks, and Yifan gets a confused look on his face.

“Why aren’t you going to tell him yourself? Aren’t you going to get off and go eat?” Yifan asks, and Jimin shakes his head. 

“We’re not allowed to leave the boat while we’re working. It’s okay, I can see him the next time I have a break.” Jimin waves it off, and Junmyeon frowns, coming up with a plan. While he understands the policy, at the same time, they were doing literally nothing and getting off the boat. Jimin and Taehyung should be able to leave it.

“Well, then can you all eat with us? You don’t need to sit with us or anything, but just get off the boat, if you want.” Jimin slowly lights up, a smile growing on his face. 

“Really? We can get off?” Jimin looks far too excited for someone just getting the chance to exit a yacht, and Junmyeon wonders how long he’s spent on this boat.

“Yeah. If your employer has a problem, say that we wanted you to get off with us.” Jimin beams, looking like Junmyeon just gave him the gift of a lifetime. 

“Thank you! I’m going to tell Tae and Joonie.” Jimin runs off, a huge smile on his face, and Junmyeon smiles at him, turning around to see Yifan’s reaction. Instead of also smiling at Jimin’s excitement, Yifan’s staring at him with a weird look on his face. It’s not happy, but it’s not sad either. It’s more like a contemplative look, and Junmyeon wonders what Yifan is thinking.

“Hey, what are you thinking?” Junmyeon asks, and Yifan stops making that face.

“Oh nothing. Let’s go see how good their food really is.” Junmyeon shrugs it off. It shouldn’t be anything anyways, and it would be nice to see who Taehyung’s brother and the man in control of their lives looks like.

Taehyung was right, the food did taste amazing.

~~~

Junmyeon waits on the balcony of a building so high it’s nearly in the clouds, one foot dangling into the pool not even three centimetres from this table, wondering who in hell thought this was a good idea for a restaurant. What if someone slipped and then just died in the swimming pool? Sure, the water might be the bluest shade of blue and everything looks so pretty, especially with the way the city looks underneath him, but this is stupid. A swimming pool nearly connected to the table is no way safe, but no one’s going to complain besides Junmyeon. 

When he asked about why they had to meet for lunch and a swim at the same time, especially here, Jeongsoon just shrugged, saying something about Joonhyuk insisting. She did promise not to hold it against him if this goes terribly sour though, so not all is bad, he guesses.

“Kim Suho?” A man arrives, flanked by two security guards with arms probably as thick as Junmyeon’s neck, and shades on. Thankfully, this one isn’t lying about being younger than he is and does look about Junmyeon’s age, but the fact that Junmyeon can’t see his eyes…

“Yeah. I’m guessing you’re Joonhyuk?” Junmyeon gets up, ready to shake hands, but Joonhyuk ignores him, turning to the two goons following him to dismiss them to wherever they’re hanging out. 

“You look even prettier in person than you do on the picture.” Joonhyuk remarks, and Junmyeon sits back down. That’s weird, but alright?

“Ah, thank you?” Junmyeon laughs a little, not quite sure what to do. This date is going downhill already, he wants nothing but to get out of here, but maybe it’ll get better.

“Well, why weren’t you already in the water? I’m pretty sure it’s fine, I specifically tell them to bring it up to a specific warmth.” Junmyeon has barely known this guy five minutes, and he’s already privy to this guy pulling his shirt off like it’s in his way. Junmyeon moves slightly out of the way for the man to easily splash into the water, feeling weirder and weirder about this by the second.

“I’m not really in the mood for swimming, I can just sit by the side and watch.” If Minseok was here, he would say that it’s just Junmyeon for “I don’t want to swim and eat at the same time because that’s fucking weird.” But Minseok isn’t here, and the voice in his head that seems remarkably similar to his older brother is telling him something about tapping out before it goes any further. 

Then Junmyeon reminds himself that he shouldn’t judge a person based on the location they like and the way they hold themselves within the first ten seconds of meeting them. Joonhyuk’s probably a cool guy, he just needs to get to know him.

“But we didn’t come here to not swim. You have to get into the water, babe.” Babe? Did this grown ass man just call Junmyeon _babe_? It’s probably just him hearing stuff, Junmyeon thinks as he sheds his shirt, slowly getting into the water. Coming to a place like this and not swimming is a bit rude and weird.

“Do you really like swimming?” Junmyeon asks when he’s finally in water that’s a bit higher than waist height, moving closer to Joonhyuk to hold a conversation. 

“Not really. I just like this pool.” He says, eyes razing over Junmyeon in a way that makes him feel uncomfortable the more he stares. Junmyeon wishes he had insisted against the pool lunch a bit harder, but he foolishly thought that not going swimming in the summer was just sinful and that this would be fun.

“Ah.” The waiter saves him from having to say anything by arriving with what appears to be the food that Joonhyuk ordered for them, floating it on top of the water and giving a gentle push so it wobbles towards them. Junmyeon wonders if pool water got into the dish and if it was actually safe to eat. But Joonhyuk digs right in, so it might not be all bad.

“So, how is it like being one of the famous Kim bros? Can’t be as fun as it’s cracked up to be, is it?” 

“Excuse me?” Junmyeon might’ve not had any appetite before, but he sets his fork down for good this time. If this man wants to insult his family, then Junmyeon might actually stab him.

“I mean you’re all rich and famous, but your parents. I mean, like, your mom is hot, but your dad seems like a class A asshole, if those rumours are anything to go off.” Joonhyuk shrugs, acting as if he didn’t just break one of the most basic laws of etiquette. Junmyeon suddenly wonders why no one mentioned that Joonhyuk had absolutely no tact, and apparently brain cells either.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. How is your family doing?” Junmyeon changes the topic through gritted teeth, trying his hardest to not break his glass and stab the man.

“Good. How did your brother catch Luhan anyways? And is it true that he just calls him Lu? What kind of a weirdo calls his husband by his last name?” 

Oh. So it was one of these people. Someone who was spoiled on power and basically only wants to meet Junmyeon to see exactly what kind of damming stuff he could give up about his family. Junmyeon’s done here, and he’s going to now exit before he does something potentially illegal.

“Well, it’s been nice meeting you, but I think I’ll get going first.” Junmyeon pushes the plate slightly away from him, and it wobbles away, exactly what he wants to do.

“But we haven’t even done much yet.” Joonhyuk protests, waving his arms around like he didn’t just crash and burn through any chance Junmyeon is ever going to do anything with him again. It might be an asshole move, but KlEan is immediately going onto their “don’t associate with unless necessary” list when he gets home.

“I just don’t feel well, so I’ll just go home and rest a bit.” Junmyeon fakes what he hopes to be a sick smile, showing that he’s troubled but also pretending not to show it. 

Joonhyuk doesn’t even see it.

“Aww, but babe, think of what fun we could have here, you and I.” The way his eyes drag over Junmyeon’s body again gives Junmyeon an idea of exactly what Joonhyuk thinks their fun could be, and he wants none of it.

“First of all, I’m not your babe, so don’t call me that. Second, don’t talk shit about my family in front of me. I don’t know what in hell kind of rumours you’re hearing, but I can assure you that they’re all wrong and we’re all very happy as we are. And third, I don’t want to do anything with you, so back off. I would say it’s nice to meet you, but I think that we shouldn’t associate with each other ever again.” Junmyeon turns towards the stairs, intending on walking out. 

Joonhyuk, a classic example of what happens when an asshole has the unfortunate ability to get too much power and no one to push him down, grabs his arm, probably intending on keeping him from leaving. “Babe-”

Junmyeon, in one swift move and with anger he didn’t know he possessed, sends his plate of food flying up into Joonhyuk’s face, along with a huge wave of water that he splashed up. 

Joonhyuk lets go of his arm, and Junmyeon leaves him sputtering there as he gets out, grabbing his shirt and the restaurant issued towel. It’s shallow enough that they can stand with no problem, Joonhyuk won’t die.

“You fucking asshole! Wait til my father hears about this! You’ll regret ever being the slightest bit rude to me.” Joonhyuk yells threats from where he’s trying to rub water out of his eyes, apparently so unfamiliar with the liquid that he can’t even do that. So Junmyeon waits until he’s no longer yapping like a madman and can see again, before drawing himself up to his full height next to the door.

“I’m the asshole? I’m Kim Suho, and I can crush your father and your whole business within seconds. What will happen when you have no factories that will agree to produce your products, no place to sell them, or no one to sell you the ingredients you need to produce your precious products or the technology to do so? I’m letting you go with a warning, but I have every means to make your life a living hell, and if I hear you say another word against my family, I will.”

“You can’t do that. Everyone knows that you don’t even have a half of a percent of what you claim to have.” Joonhyuk’s startled, but he’s still giving empty threats.

“You don’t have enough money to even buy a dust bunny off the floor of my house.” Junmyeon walks out before he can say anything else, knowing that there was nothing left that wouldn’t get him unnecessarily mad. The goons are blocking his way into the little changing rooms that the restaurant provides, and Junmyeon glares at them, no desire to interact with anything that has even a trace of Joonhyuk. Thankfully, they’re a lot smarter than Joonhyuk ever was, and step aside, letting him through. 

In the privacy of the changing room, Junmyeon texts the family group chat that the date was an absolute failure and that KlEan was now going onto the blacklist, no interaction with whatsoever. God, why did he think that this was ever a good idea? Romance is overrated anyways.

~~~

Junmyeon snatches the window seat for Universe, the coffee shop that Yifan wanted to meet at. His hair is still slightly wet, and from the way the girl stared after him when he ordered, the back of his shirt is probably wet. None of that really matters because he’s as far away from the asshole as he can be, and doing something far more enjoyable.

“Hey, did you just go swimming?” Yifan’s voice comes from behind him, and Junmyeon latches onto the sort of comfort, wanting to rant and just be in a relaxing situation at the same time. “Did something go wrong?” 

Apparently Junmyeon looks angrier than he thought. “Oh, I just came from a really bad date. It’s fine though, I don’t think I would’ve liked him anyways.” 

“I’m going to grab a drink and then I’ll be back and you can rant, alright? I know how it feels.” Junmyeon nods, feeling his waves of rage and anger start to slowly simmer down with the promise of a sympathetic ear. Yifan indeeds does return immediately, holding a drink that tastes a lot sweeter than the bitter anger that Junmyeon is actually rapidly chugging down, and Junmyeon feels a bit better, even if his blood stream doesn’t. 

“So, how bad was it? Did they try to steal your money? Your soul? Your personal information?” Yifan starts off sarcastic, but everything he just lists hits a bit too close to home. 

“Not this time. He’s just, ugh!” Junmyeon kinda wants to find Joonhyuk and yell at him again, or maybe just shout into a pillow. “Can I swear?” 

“Ah, so he’s one of those assholes?” Yifan sympathises, and Junmyeon nods perhaps a bit too vigorously, feeling that kind of hatred in his soul.

“Yes! God, he didn’t even say hi and he called me babe. I don’t even know him, and it’s so rude and pretentious that I want to just,” Junmyeon groans into his hands. Now Junmyeon feels like he wants to punch Joonhyuk, and he didn’t even get into the worst part.

“So he’s just one of those completely asshole assholes?” Yifan asks, and people look at them funny when Junmyeon nods again.

“Yes. And he started asking me about rumours and personal family stuff, like this, this jerk! He wanted to know about my brother’s relationship and called my dad an asshole! I put him on our blacklist, but I still want to just, just-” 

Yifan pats Junmyeon’s hand and the desire to throttle Joonhyuk somehow slips out of Junmyeon’s body. “I understand. But you’re not going to see him ever again, and thinking about him for more than a second is just giving him the power to bug you more.” Yifan states matter of factly, and Junmyeon relaxes, feeling the truth in the statement.

“Yeah. Thanks. I needed to rant like this.” Junmyeon smiles again, feeling the anger completely gone now that he had a chance to throw it all out. He should probably do this kind of ranting more often, but he doesn’t have time. “Sorry, I just completely took over. How did your dinner with your cousin go yesterday?”

Yifan’s eyes gleam and he launches straight into the story, giving Junmyeon something to focus on and let the anger completely drain from his body.

~~~

After that mess of a date, everyone agrees that Junmyeon no longer needs to go on any dates until Jeongsoon and Heechul are sure that potential partners aren’t assholes. In the meantime, Junmyeon gets the post-failure break, maybe a week or two of freedom from whatever dude is being pushed at him this time. So in the meantime, he gets to hear Yifan complain about bad dates. It’s only fair, after the little rant Junmyeon went on.

“So, how bad was it?” Junmyeon asks Yifan, as they walk along the stream in the park, enjoying the cool evening breeze as the sun starts to set. Yifan’s resting bitch face seems to be bitchier than usual, and Junmyeon prepares to help console him.

“Horrid. So you know how it was just a lunch at this little cafe, right?” 

Junmyeon nods, handing Yifan a dandelion that he pulled from the ground. He would give him a different flower, but he’ll feel bad taking anything besides a dandelion. 

“She got there first because she was early, and I felt a bit bad that she had to wait. But then she said that she didn’t care because I was hot, and that was a little weird.” Yifan’s slightly gesturing as he walks, but he takes the dandelion and makes Junmyeon stop moving, sticking it into his hair behind his ear as he continues to rant.

“Yeah.” Junmyeon picks up another dandelion and motions for Yifan to bend down slightly, knowing that there is actually no way he would be able to get to his head. Yifan obliges, bending down for Junmyeon to also stick the dandelion in his hair, behind the ear.

“But it got really weird when we were ordering, because she ordered something with almost everything removed. I even asked if we should just leave and go for a walk since she clearly didn’t seem hungry, but she just said that she ‘has a restricted palate.’ I mean, that is understandable if she was allergic to some things, but she was ordering a sandwich without gluten, sugar, and carbs, without being allergic to a single thing! Sorry, am I going into too much detail? I don’t want to burden you with my problem.” Yifan pauses, looking over at Junmyeon to see if he was still paying attention.

Junmyeon shakes his head, not at all opposed to the complaints. It was actually a little interesting watching Yifan like this, a bit on edge and not in complete control of his feelings. “Don’t worry, I did the same to you, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, but you didn’t go into as much detail as I am.” Junmyeon waves off the complaint, and after a little more silence as they walk past the chirping crickets, Yifan starts again.

“So we finish our food and I don’t think that she would order dessert, so I start preparing to leave so we can just go for a walk, but she calls the waiter over and ask for the dessert menu. It was incredibly rude the way she did it too.” Yifan grabs Junmyeon and tugs him slightly to the side, just in time for a group of cyclists to ride past, all going faster than Junmyeon thinks he would ever be able to achieve on a bicycle. He releases Junmyeon as soon as the danger is over, and Junmyeon returns to his original spot right next to Yifan’s side.

“We didn’t even go for a walk afterwards, because she said that she was tired after reading a fantasy novel all day. Who gets tired after reading?” Yifan gestures wider, nearly hitting a tree branch. 

“Yeah, that is weird.” Junmyeon agrees, but honestly some of the philosophical and self-help books Yifan likes to read are enough to put Junmyeon to sleep if he was particularly tired. Maybe listening to Yifan read them to him would be different, but getting tired after a fantasy book is too much.

“I know that I might sound really nit-picky, but I just don’t have a good feeling about her. All that we discussed was about me, how much work I might have, how much money our company makes, how she thinks I look good. I know she might be an heiress, but only wanting to discuss money and how I look is a bit weird. I don’t think I’ll be going back out with her.” Yifan finishes, stepping over a small chalk drawing done by a child.

“Well, if you don’t feel right about a person, then you shouldn’t date them. Besides, there’s probably better men and women in the world for you.” Junmyeon states, also stepping over the chalk drawing. It’s of a small sandwich, and is actually quite detailed despite Junmyeon only being able to recognise it due to the little arrow with the label sandwich pointing at it.

“Yeah, that’s true.” Yifan agrees, his voice and expression calming down. “I’m so glad that I met you to see how things should be like.”

Be like? What did Yifan mean by that? How the date should be like? But Junmyeon has never gone on any dates with Yifan. 

“That’s what I’m here for.” Junmyeon replies, and Yifan hmms, satisfied with his response as they pass a few kite fliers and Yifan’s eyes drift over the cart of kites being sold.

“So what are we doing tomorrow? I think visiting an aquarium wouldn’t be too bad, especially if we visit the beach afterwards.” Yifan asks, tearing his eyes away from the cart with a bit more force than it probably should’ve required. Junmyeon makes a mental note to search up when it’ll be this windy again and hopefully acquire some kites before then.

“Sure. I’m free like always, so when do you want to go?” Junmyeon jokes, and Yifan thinks about it for about three seconds before coming up with an answer.

“Let’s go to the aquarium earlier in the morning to avoid the crowd. I think they’re having some kind of a show, so want to meet at 8?” 

“Sure.” Yifan falls silent again, satisfied with the plans. Junmyeon’s mind drifts off again towards that “be like”. They haven’t ever gone on any dates.

But then again, Yifan’s lunch date does seem quite familiar. They did have lunch together yesterday, because Jongin wanted to drag him out to a dance concert and he couldn’t take dinner with Yifan. Junmyeon wasn’t rude to the waiter or hypocritical. Junmyeon didn’t order a sandwich with nothing on it or feel tired because of a book or talk about weird things. And they did take a walk afterwards, walking to the theatre where Junmyeon was going to meet up with Jongin. But that wasn’t a date, was it?

“Hey, ice cream! Let’s get some!” Yifan’s eyes light up when he sees the little ice cream cart, and Junmyeon willingly lets himself be dragged over to stand behind a line full of kids and their parents. 

What they do aren’t dates. Not in any sense of the word. But at the same time, would it be so different to start calling and defining them as dates? Junmyeon feels a bit like starting to like someone now is just counterproductive to the past five years of his life, which were spent ducking dates and feelings like the plague. 

No, he’s not going to think about what a date with Yifan could feel like, or what it would be like to be dating him. Besides, summer vacation doesn’t last forever, and Yifan has to go back to China eventually. But then Yifan asks Junmyeon what ice cream he would like with about as much enthusiasm as the little girl in front of them speaks to her parents with, and Junmyeon has to push the thought down a bit further.

~~~

Junmyeon wakes up at 7 and reaches for the air conditioning remote control before his eyes are even seeing okay, pressing the blurs of red and black in the hopes that he remembers the air speed and temperature control buttons well enough to operate it. God, did the air conditioning break, or did he set it too low before he fell asleep? Why is it so hot that he’s sweating?

By the time Junmyeon finally finishes getting ready for the day, he no longer wants to do anything besides settle in a chair in front of his air conditioning and grab a bucket of ice cream. This feeling is increased when he opens a window to hopefully feel the temperature outside and gets _slapped_ in the face with heat, despite the fact that his ac is still going. Junmyeon quickly closes his window and picks up his phone to text Yifan that he’s not going to make it to the aquarium, much less spend any time outside. It’s just simply too hot.

Thankfully, before he can even start formulating the characters for the message in his mind, there’s a message from Yifan. He asks if Junmyeon would like to go over to just spend the day watching movies in Yifan’s nice, air conditioned home, and cancel all forms of activity that require leaving a place with a good air condition. How could Junmyeon possibly refuse?

The slight trip to Yifan’s apartment is too long, and Junmyeon arrives near dripping in sweat despite spending most of it in his air conditioned car. God, this weather sucks.

“Oh, are you okay?” Yifan asks as soon as he opens the door and sees Junmyeon standing there, dying inside. 

“No. Move, you’re blocking the ac.” Yifan moves to the side without complaint and Junmyeon enters as fast as he can, feeling his skin drop in temperature and thanking all the gods for that little blessing.

“You look near death. You sure you don’t have a fever or something?” Yifan lays a hand on Junmyeon’s forehead to check, and even though Junmyeon is fully aware that nothing is wrong with him, he still does nothing, not enough strength in him for him to consider moving.

“No. It’s just really hot.” Yifan takes his hand off, Junmyeon apparently passing the forehead test, even if Yifan has to wipe his hand off. “I’m not leaving until it’s cooler outside. I will sleep the night and potentially all the nights until winter if I have to.”

Yifan chuckles, pointing to a pair of black slippers on the floor as he walks into his apartment. “Luckily, the weather forecast says it’s going to drop after it rains in the afternoon, so you can go home at night. Use the black slippers please.” 

Junmyeon changes his shoes like he had been instructed, and then walks into Yifan’s house, following the path he took seconds ago. Past the little entranceway, all of Yifan’s apartment is quite open, with only a singular wall used to separate different rooms from each other. And it’s not even a properly built wall, but more like a display case closing off the living room from the dining and the kitchen and the study. But besides that, Yifan’s house is draped in shades of red and purple. It’s a real mystery, but none of the colours are really annoying bold, popping off the object to scream in Junmyeon’s face. Instead, they’re more of a subtle announcement, drawing Junmyeon’s attention naturally. 

It’s a beautiful place, and somewhere that Junmyeon would actually want to live in. Maybe Yixing had a hand in this interior design, it looks like the kind of beautiful thing he would do.

“Hey, go take a shower and clean off your sweat.” Yifan’s standing in a less subtle hallway, holding some clothes. Junmyeon nearly didn’t even notice that even existed due to the rest of Yifan’s house catching his attention so much. Maybe that was the intention.

“Are you calling me dirty?” Junmyeon asks, mock offended as he takes the clothes Yifan offers him. Hopefully there isn’t anything weird in here, the shirt Yifan wore last week to dinner still gives him nightmares.

“No, I’m calling you sweaty. This is just a clean t-shirt and shorts, and some unworn underwear that my cousin insisted I keep for him. I don’t know if anything will fit on you, but the underwear should at least because it’s elastic.” Junmyeon nods, looking at the neatly folded clothes. Well, they’re not as bad as Minseok’s level of near obsessive fold, which was probably inherited from Jeongsoon. 

“Thanks.” Junmyeon smiles at Yifan, receiving a smile back as he steps into the mysterious white hallway. 

“Bathroom’s the third one on the left, or you can go into any of the bedrooms and go into their connected bathroom. I’ll wait on the couch.” And without another explanation, Yifan leaves him there to fend for himself.

Junmyeon finds out two things about Yifan from his bathroom. The first is that he managed to find the same brand of soap as the hotel chain that always treats Junmyeon so well. The second is that he really doesn’t spend much time inside, judging from how this part of the house is the most minimal. Junmyeon doesn’t even see a toothbrush, just neatly hung towels and the things necessary for having a good shower or whatever you’re trying to do in the bathroom. 

Junmyeon comes out feeling a lot better. Like predicted, the shirt is big on him, hanging a bit past his waist but not reaching his knees. The shorts are also slightly big, but nothing’s falling down, so it’s a success.

Yifan’s sitting on the black couch on the far right, another one of philosophical books in his hand and a mug on the side table right next to him. He looks up when Junmyeon enters, still rubbing at his hair with a towel, and pats the seat next to him.

“Hey. How was that shower?” Junmyeon does a nodding motion that is supposed to express the amount of excitement that the shower brought, but only expresses that he doesn’t know what to really do with himself in this foreign space.

“It was great, thanks. I left my clothes in the bathroom because I didn’t really know what to do with them.” 

Yifan nods, passing Junmyeon the remote as he lands onto the couch, turning back towards his book. “I’ll wash them and return them to you later.”

“Thanks. What book are you reading that has so much of your attention?” Junmyeon jokes, trying to remember what movies he had really wanted to see. None really come to mind, but maybe there’s like a classic that he hasn’t watched.

“A way to become the ruler of the world.” Junmyeon snorts, not completely sure if Yifan is joking or not. He doesn’t really care in the end though, because he puts down the book and scoots over to Junmyeon to watch him choose. “Want me to get some popcorn and drinks?” 

“We can’t start a movie without the proper snacks.”

Yifan gets up, seeing the wisdom in those words as he walks to the kitchen, and Junmyone watches as he pops the popcorn and pours liquid from a few different bottles into one particularly large cup. Well, it’s not like Yifan’s going to poison him.

Eventually, Junmyeon settles on something that looks not bad and Yifan takes his seat down next to him. The popcorn is settled in the spot right between them, there are two straws in the mystery drink, and the temperature is cool. This is the perfect way to spend this day.

~~~

A loud clap of thunder drowns out what the characters are saying on the screen, and Junmyeon tears his eyes away from the screen for what must be the first time today. The whole room is dark, and judging from Junmyeon’s stomach, they skipped lunch.

“It’s pretty late.” Yifan frowns, pausing the show to check the time. 5:47. They really did spend the whole day doing nothing but watching shows. “Are you hungry? I can cook something simple for us to eat, but don’t expect too much.” 

Junmyeon stretches, moving his head off Yifan’s shoulder as he gets up, taking the empty popcorn bowl that was on his lap. “If you want. I can help.”

Yifan scoffs as he also gets up, holding the empty cup. “No. I’ve heard enough about you in the kitchen from Baekhyun and Chanyeol. You don’t need to do a thing.”

“But I want to help. I can’t mess up if you give me instructions.” Junmyeon puts the empty bowl on what should be Yifan’s dinner table, watching as Yifan walks around, flipping hidden switches to turn on the lights.

“Remember when you tried to make that origami bird with instructions?” Junmyeon frowns, this example is unfair and Yifan knows it.

“Origami is hard! You didn’t exactly do much better.” Yifan brushes away the mention of his own failure with a wave of a hand. They had gone to an origami class that Minseok had recommended, and it had gone absolutely horrid. Junmyeon understands why Minseok and Luhan would’ve loved it, but this re-cements the opinion that he shouldn’t ever copy Minseok’s date ideas.

“Just leave the cooking to me.” Yifan drops the cup on the table and wanders into his kitchen area, pulling open cupboards and the fridge in search of ingredients.

“So what do I do?” Junmyeon drags a chair over to just outside the kitchen area, so he isn’t disturbing Yifan.

“I dunno. Don’t you have a phone to go on and scroll through random things?” 

“I forgot it at home. What are you making?”

“Some fried rice. Do you want some stewed pork in it?”

“Yes please.” 

Yifan may not be the world’s best cook, but he gets the job done, and certainly a lot better than Junmyeon could have. Within minutes the fried rice is served, bright cubes of cucumbers and carrots and tiny bits of yellow egg and pork staring up at him from inside the rice.

“So this is how you make fried rice? Isn’t it supposed to be a lot darker?” Junmyeon takes a bite anyways, and it still tastes great, though not as salty as he expected.

“This is how my mom made it.” Yifan’s frown is poutlike, and he leans slightly over to bump Junmyeon’s shoulder in betrayal. “Fried rice is darker because you put soy sauce over the rice, but my mom didn’t so I don’t. And don’t complain when I’m making you food, I put a lot of care and love into this.” 

“I didn’t say it tasted bad.” Junmyeon takes another bite to prove that he likes it, and Yifan stops frowning as severely. “It tastes great, thank you.” 

“You don’t need to thank me.” Yifan turns to his own rice, taking a big bite. The bite doesn’t disguise the smile he has, and Junmyeon turns back to his own food, happy that Yifan’s happy.

~~~

Junmyeon leaves not too soon after dinner, seeing that the rain is more or less stopped and the temperature is cooler. To his luck, he turns directly into a rain-caused traffic jam, not even five feet from his building. As he waits for the cars in front of him to move, a knock comes on his window and Junmyeon jumps, visions of police officers pulling him over again racing through his mind. 

Thankfully for Junmyeon’s heart, it’s Jongdae. Wait, why is Jongdae in the middle of the road.

“Hyung! I’m so glad I caught you! Can you drive me home?” Jongdae has the widest _‘I need a favour please’_ grin and Junmyeon sighs.

“Get in.” Jongdae eagerly rounds the car and gets into the passenger seat, brushing the leftover raindrops from his hair as he buckles up.

“I love you hyung.” Jongdae flashes him some finger hearts and Junmyeon scoffs, focusing instead on the traffic that miraculously cleared up. Just to make sure, Junmyeon turns into a smaller road before he thinks about opening his mouth again.

“So, why were you in the middle of the road?”

“Yeollie picked me up from the show so we drove to Baekhyun’s apartment, and I was walking home because they’re both jerks and didn’t want to drive me. Why were you turning out of that building? Are you really so desperate for work that you’re scoping out our competition by sneaking in?” 

“I’m not working! I was at a friend’s.” Junmyeon protests his case, and is met with Jongdae’s disbelieving scoff. “Wait, you were walking home? You live 20 minutes away!” He takes his eyes off the road to look at Jongdae in shock, and Jongdae just points back at the road, the little shit.

“Eyes on the road, you’re the one who’s so anal about not crashing.” Junmyeon scoffs and turns back, feeling attacked. “Besides, we’re talking about you and not me. What friend? Why haven’t you introduced me?”

“I can have friends without you knowing, Jongdae.” 

“No you can’t, we need to make sure they know you’re lame. Also, what are you wearing? You hate oversized clothes that aren’t jackets.” 

Oh right. He’s still wearing Yifan’s clothes. Huh, why didn’t he realise that earlier? 

The awkward pause is taking too long, and since Junmyeon still feels Jongdae’s eyes on him, he scoops around for the first response that sounds decent. “I don’t hate oversized stuff.”

“Bullshit.” Then there’s a gasp that promises nothing good at all. “Oh, shit.”

“Stop cursing unnecesarily in my car.”

“Hypocrite. But I know why the building’s so familiar! You dropped Baek off for the party at his friend’s house, um, Yi, Yiban?”

“His name’s Yifan.” Junmyeon snaps, and from his peripheral vision, he sees Jongdae grin. Oh fuck. He messed up.

“Yifan! You were at Yifan’s apartment. And what were you doing at his house that required you to wear his clothes?” 

“We’re just friends, I know what you’re thinking. And my clothes were soaked through so he let me borrow some of his.” 

“Yeah right.”

“Jongdae.”

“Fine. We are going to have this conversation inside my apartment because you always insist that you’re going to die if you talk too much while driving.” And to Junmyeon’s amazement, Jongdae actually shuts up, even if Junmyeon can feel him practically still vibrating with excitement next to him. It makes him feel a bit queasy, and he can’t even blame it on the food.

~~~

Junmyeon walks into Jongdae’s apartment, moving at a speed that is suspiciously slow, though it’s just because he wants to stall the interrogation he can see that Jongdae look too eager to start.

“Stop stalling, hyung. Sit down with me and spill.” Junmyeon sighs, sliding off his shoes at normal speed to oblige his brother. Jongdae’s already cross-legged on his favourite carpet, drink in hand, and a look that Minseok would be proud of.

“So, Yifan.” Jongdae’s smirk grows dangerous, and Junmyeon regrets sitting down.

“What about Yifan?” 

“You like him.”

“I don’t like him like that. We’re just friends.” 

“Yet you’re wearing his oversized clothes when you wouldn’t borrow Jongin’s.”

“I had nothing else to wear.” Junmyeon protests weakly, but he can see Jongdae gathering up steam for a rant, and decides to just give it up and retreat early so Jongdae can be done with it.

“Well, why didn’t you change back when they dried? You’ve basically spent almost every second of your break with him, and Yixing told me that basically the only things you talk to him about are related to him.” Yixing told him that? God, Junmyeon’s his best friend, not Jongdae! “Don’t give me that look, we all know that he’s as invested in your love life as much as the rest of us are. Your eyes get softer and your lips start curling up in a way that I haven’t seen you do since the last time you saw Yixing in person whenever someone mentions his name, and you smile when your phone buzzes!”

“That’s because it’s not work related.”

“No, it’s because it’s Yifan related. No one texts you besides us, and you certainly don’t smile whenever Jongin invites you to another dance show.” 

“Yixing?”

“Yixing calls. Don’t try to pretend I don’t know him just because you two have regular rant sessions every night.”

Junmyeon stops looking at Jongdae, not sure what to say. What was the point of this conversation again?  


“You like him, just admit it and stop calling you two just friends, because whatever is happening with you two is more than just friends.” Oh right. This is the point.

“We’re really just friends. He’s here on vacation so he doesn’t know many other people who have so much free time, and I just think he’s a nice person.”

“Why are you trying to insist that you two are just friends? I saw you the other day with him at the park, and you two look more like a couple than Minseok-hyung and Luhan.” 

“That’s not possible.” Minseok and Luhan are the ultimate we-are-a-couple couple. They’re usually talking about the other, and since they got married, Junmyeon has watched Minseok unconsciously position his hand for his wedding ring to better be on full display at all times.

“Well, it is. Matching flowers in your hair, and holding hands? The only thing you could’ve done to be more of a couple is to kiss.”

“Fine. Let’s say that we really do look like as much of a couple as you say. But we’re not going to be one because we both don’t want to date.”

Jongdae levels him with an unimpressed look. “Well, how do you know how he feels? Besides, even if you get annoyed, you usually agree whenever mom or dad recommends you a date. Why can’t you go on a date with him?” 

“I just, it’s, we just don’t.” There’s no words that come up to mind, and the thought that they have been doing nothing but go on dates rises again. Junmyeon doesn’t push it down this time. Does he really like Yifan like that? But dating, and relationships, and just, everything?

“If there’s nothing blocking you, then why don’t you date him?” Should he be worried because there’s nothing he can think of to counter Jongdae? “And I’m not just saying this because he fits the requirements-”

“What requirements?” Junmyeon cuts his brother off with a roll of his eyes. “Tall, rich and handsome?”

“No. You really like him.”

Junmyeon stares at Jongdae and sees the genuine excitement in his eyes. Oh. He’s not just teasing.

~~~

Yifan calls him over to go shopping the next day, and Junmyeon thinks about how his first thought when waking up in the morning was about what they were going to do that day. 

Yifan comments that a certain shirt would look great on him, and Junmyeon thinks about how it actually does. 

Yifan buys him lunch at a high class restaurant they haven’t been to yet despite it being Junmyeon’s day to pay for food, and Junmyeon thinks about that too as he eats what Yifan ordered for them, because Yifan knows his taste buds better than Junmyeon does.

Zitao greets them when walk into a store after finishing lunch, where he was also shopping at. “Jun-hyung! Fan-ge! Nice to see you!”

Standing not five feet away is another man who is just about as tall as Zitao, and he whirls around at the sound of Zitao’s voice, a look on his face that is best described as “ready to attack.” He sees Yifan and relaxes a little, then he sees Junmyeon and tenses up again.

“Oh hi, Zitao.” Junmyeon says, a bit weakly, as the man immediately sets down the shirt he was feeling and crosses the five steps to throw an arm around Zitao’s shoulders.

“Hey Taozi, and it’s nice to see that you finally popped out of whatever hole you were hiding in.” Yifan jokes at the other man in the room, and he scowls with an intensity that Yifan and Zitao both seem to possess but actually don’t. He does.

“I was visiting a friend. Who’s he?” A hand reaches up to rub along his shoulder blades, and Junmyeon lets go of a little tension that he didn’t know he was holding. 

“My friend, Junmyeon. Junmyeon, this is my younger cousin, Sehun. My aunt started the fashion brand w’o11, but Sehun wears his boyfriend’s brand more than he wears his own, which is why they’re both shopping for new clothes.”

“Ge! We’re shopping because someone wants new clothes, not because we’re fighting.” In an instance, Junmyeon watches as Sehun turns from totally intimidating to more relaxed and calm, no longer looking like he’s glaring. Maybe this is genetic. 

“Hey, do you think Kyungsoo-hyung would think this looks good?” A very familiar voice weaves around clothes racks and stops in front of them, wearing a shirt that honestly doesn’t look that different from like two others Junmyeon had seen in his closet.

“Jongin?”

“Hyung?” Jongin looks as confused as Junmyeon feels, and Sehun jumps into attack mode again. 

“How do you two know each other?” 

“Kim bros.” Zitao says gently, hitting Sehun with a shirt to get him to look at when Zitao raises it up against himself.

“Ah, are you shopping for new clothes too?” Jongin asks after the mandatory hug, and Junmyeon nods.

“Yeah. Don’t you have a show in the afternoon that you were attending?” 

Jongin nods, brushing hair out of his eyes. “Yeah, I’m going with Sehun and Zitao. Who’s this?” His tone changes, despite the fact that he was the one who was asking about Kyungsoo in such an enthusiastic tone. This family, he swears.

“This is Yifan, my friend.”

“My cousin.” Sehun calls, and Jongin nods in understanding.

“Yifan, my younger brother Jongin.” 

“Nice to meet you. I think we’ve met before.” Yifan sticks a hand out to shake, and Jongin shakes it despite looking as confused about Yifan’s statement as everyone is.

“When?” 

“In your building that other day. I think I had business with someone about Antares, the new software we launched. I also introduced myself as Kris.”

“Ah, you’re Wu Kris.” Jongin nods in understanding, and Junmyeon freezes. When was Yifan in their building? Did they pass by each other? Did Minseok actually set them up after all?

“So, want to have lunch with us? We’re going to grab something to eat right after this shop.” Zitao offers, and Sehun looks like he would like nothing but for them to deny, but not being able to voice it because of Zitao.

“We just ate, but we can go with you guys. We’re not really looking for anything in particular.” Yifan saves the situation, but the last sentence sounds a bit too stressed. Whatever, it can’t be Junmyeon’s problem.

“Oh hyung, do you have a card I can borrow? I forgot my wallet at home.” Every time he’s around his brothers, they always forget his wallet at home. At least with Jongin he knows that he genuinely left it, even if Junmyeon will have to catch Jongin at 6:45 of a blue moon during the break in the rush hour of somewhere very up north to be able to get his card again.

“Here. It’s set to end this month, so just take it and don’t try to give it back to me.” Junmyeon passes over his unlimited card and Jongin grins, squeezing Junmyeon in another hug.

“I love you the most, hyung!” 

“Don’t buy this shirt, you have three others that look identical at home and the third one is a better material and has lace details.” And for once, Jongin seems to be seriously considering Junmyeon’s opinion for fashion.

“The lace would probably be better. He doesn’t say it, but Kyungsoo likes when someone looks pretty.” Yifan adds in, and Jongin stops hesitating, handing the card back to Junmyeon to hold for now.

“Alright. I’ll change out and grab a different one then.” Jongin brushes away, heading back to the changing room.

“I think I’m done too. I’ll just take the one that you’re holding, Hunnie.” Zitao mentions, and Sehun hands over the jacket. “Can you pay for me? I also forgot my wallet.”

“I definitely saw you pick up the wallet before leaving.” Sehun says, and Zitao’s puppy eyes grow in size.

“Please? You were going to pay for all of Nini’s stuff anyways.” 

“I’ll pay for you then.” Zitao brightens up, and latches onto Yifan instead, sticking his tongue out at Sehun.

“Well, I know who loves me more.” 

“Yeah yeah. We’ll be right back.” Yifan assures Junmyeon, and Junmyeon nods, not realising how stabilizing that hand was until it’s gone.

This leaves Junmyeon alone with Sehun in middle of this clothes store. For some reason, this makes him very nervous. Sehun seems like he doesn’t really like him, which is problematic.

“Okay, I don’t know what intentions you have with my cousin,”

“I don’t have any intentions.” Junmyeon accidentally cuts Sehun off in the middle of a sentence. Sehun glares a bit more, this isn’t good.

“That’s what they all say. Yifan-hyung goes on a lot of dates and he’s met a lot of people, so don’t think you’re too special.”

“Why does everyone keep saying that we’re dating? We’re just friends.” Junmyeon protests, and Sehun’s cut off again by a different voice.

“That’s because you two are. You’re just too blind to see it.” Jongin’s back in his own clothes, and Junmyeon passes the card over without protest. “Be kind to my brother. He means well, even if he’s dumb and doesn’t like to talk about feelings.” He thumps Sehun on the back twice before he’s gone again, probably to join Zitao and Yifan in the line. 

“That applies to him too, what is he saying?” Junmyeon grumbles under his breath, and Sehun seems to nod in agreement before turning his attention back to Junmyeon.

“Okay. For Jongin’s sake, I’ll pretend you’re nice.”

“Geez, thanks.” Junmyeon doesn’t know if Sehun caught that mumble, but judging from his frown, he did. How sharp are his ears? Junmyeon can barely hear Yifan through a sheet of paper.

“I don’t know what you want to do with my cousin, but you better not hurt him. No one will be particularly sad if you leave, so just remember that.”

Before Junmyeon could try to say that they aren’t dating so that the you-hurt-him-and-I-hurt-you talk doesn’t really apply here, he’s cut off by Yifan and Zitao returning, goods in hand.

“Why are you threatening my Myeonnie? I’ll be particularly sad if he leaves.” Yifan drapes his arms over Junmyeon, unusually touchy and smiley today, and Junmyeon’s worries melt away. Well, not the one about his ribs getting crushed but most of the more significant ones do.

“You do know-”

“Yes, we spent a whole afternoon going over it. I’m going to call him noodles no matter what anyone says.” Yifan rolls his eyes, and Junmyeon flicks his cheek gently. 

“Let go, I want to steal Jun-hyung.” Zitao protests, and even if Yifan doesn’t say anything, grabs Junmyeon and Yifan in a hug.

“You’re not going a good job of that.” Sehun remarks from where he’s standing by the pile, and from what Junmyeon knows of his personality, the next words coming out of Zitao’s mouth are not going to make Sehun the happiest camper in this store. 

“Why are you trying to abduct my brother? Let’s go eat, I’m hungry.” Jongin cuts Zitao off before he could ask Sehun to join the hug pile, and Zitao remembers his stomach, forgetting the hug.

Zitao lets go of Junmyeon and goes back to where Sehun is carrying his bag, looping his arm through his again, and gently laying his head on his shoulder for a few seconds. Sehun’s frown softens until it’s unnoticeable, and he presses a kiss to Zitao’s temple though it’s such a weird angle.

“Let’s go have some noodles.” Junmyeon doesn’t know if he should take responsibility for the way that Jongin and Yifan both burst out laughing, and how Sehun stands there, stanchly refusing to smile as Zitao asks again, dead serious. Well, Junmyeon thinks he has the stomach to spare for a bowl, though not enough to think about what just happened.

~~~

“Surprise.” Junmyeon wakes up to an angel leaning over him, serenely smiling. Oh wait, it’s just Yixing, but he isn’t that far off.

Wait, Yixing?

Junmyeon sits bolt up-right in bed, just nearly missing Yixing’s head by centimetres, and the laugh that comes confirms that he’s not dreaming. His best friend is in his house.

“Yixing? What are you doing here? How did you get in? Aren’t you in China?” Questions tumble out one after another, and Junmyeon barely remembers to hug Yixing with how slowly his brain gears are turning.

“Good morning to you too.” Yixing pat him on the back gently, smirking at how disorganised Junmyeon is. Other people will say it’s just a smile, but Junmyeon knows better. Yixing is a little demon, and this whole setup is just a part of some plan of his.

“How about we get some breakfast in you before we start on the questions? Your brain isn’t awake yet.” Junmyeon agrees with that assertion. He nearly trips getting out of bed, and though there’s some concern, Yixing’s “careful!” is more teasing than anything. God, he missed him.

When Junmyeon finishes getting ready for the day, he finds that Yixing had helped himself to whatever was in the kitchen to make some crepe-like pancakes called jian-bing for him. Well, it wasn’t like he was going to use much of it on his own, and now he knows he’s eating quality food.

“So how are you doing?” Yixing asks over the food, after Junmyeon had adequately expressed how great it tastes.

“I’m doing good. Also how are you here?” 

“Well, you told me your password and I unlocked the door for myself.”

“Really? I thought you forgot it.” Yixing shakes his head, pulling a folded post-it out of his pocket.

“I wrote it down! Sure, I might’ve accidentally washed it, but I can still make out the numbers, and I got in.” Yixing shoves the post-it back, and Junmyeon nods.

“No, but why are you in Korea? Don’t you have a lot of work?”

“I’m here for a project. The client wanted me specifically to design it, so I’m here to do so. And after seeing it, I can have a little vacation, so I’m going to steal your spare room.” 

“Well, it was basically your room anyways. How long are you going to be in town? We should have a dinner, my brothers won’t be happy if they think I’m keeping you to myself.” Junmyeon asks, and Yixing nods.

“I have a week here, and then I have to head back. Also Minseok-hyung already knows I’m here because Luhan-ge told him. I think he’s already scheduling dinner.” 

That sounds like Minseok. 

“So how has your vacation been going? How’s Yifan been?”

“Oh, Yifan’s great. We should all go out for lunch or something, I think he’ll be happy to meet you.”

“You’re answering like- I already know him, but the lunch sounds fun.” Junmyeon’s answering like what? Whatever, he doesn’t think he wants to know.

“Oh, you do? You didn’t mention that.”

“He’s my ex. We dated for about 6 months.” Well, what is that pit that suddenly opened in Junmyeon’s stomach? 

Yixing looks at Junmyeon and laughs. “What’s with that expression? It was nothing serious, we’re still great friends.”

“Nothing serious? That was half a year! People get married in half a year!” Junmyeon doesn’t know if he could finish this jian-bing, even though it’s still delicious.

“And I didn’t tell you I knew him because I knew you were going to react like this,” Yixing takes another bite, “like you’re suddenly breaking the best friend’s code for liking or dating him or something.”

“I don’t like him and we’re not dating.” Yixing gives him a look, and all of Junmyeon’s protests finally fall flat. He can’t lie to Yixing even if he can lie to himself. Oh god, what is he going to do now?

“Relax. From what you tell me, he likes you back and we were ancient history before we even began.” 

“But you two still dated and _fuck_ , it's going to be awkward!” A hint of something starts twisting in the space between Junmyeon’s rib cage, and Yixing sighs.

“It’s not going to be awkward just because we dated for a little. We just realised that we were just friends pretending to be dating, and did something about it. Now that I think about it, this is the opposite predicament you’re in.”

“Don’t joke please. Are you sure it’s not going to be awkward? How am I supposed to face him?”

“Junmyeon.” Yixing takes his free hand and clutches it tight, and Junmyeon starts feeling the thing untwist. “We dated for 6 months but we only saw each other every other weekend despite living almost next door. And this was during my first year of college before I transferred over, so there was literally nothing serious. Most of our time was just sitting together studying and buying snacks for each other. You two live on nearly opposite sides of town and yet you’ve somehow met up every day to do something fun and different.” 

“That’s because we both have time and know how to drive.” 

“No, that’s because you actually want to see each other. Baekhyun and Chanyeol and Kyungsoo are also very free, and you don’t see Yifan seeking them out everyday.” 

“Well, that doesn’t mean that he really likes me. He could just think I’m a good friend.” Yixing frowns, and yeah, that argument was weak.

“He’s known Kyungsoo since they were born and Chanyeol is always listed as one of his emergency contacts.” Yixing shrugs at the confused look Junmyeon gives him. “I was looking for an envelope.”

Yixing’s done weirder so Junmyeon brushes off the emergency contact. “How do you know that we’re compatible? Like I’ve met so many people who just say that I’m nice but just not boyfriend material.” 

“Good to see you’re not denying it anymore.” Junmyeon groans and nearly faceplants into his jian-bian. Thankfully, Yixing rounds the table to properly look at Junmyeon so he face-plants instead into Yixing’s shoulder. “Ah.” Junmyeon opens his mouth obediently to accept the bite of jian-bing before putting his eyes back against Yixing to avoid the humiliation. “You met in a movie theatre. There’s nothing more like a date than a movie date.”

“Fine. I like Wu Yifan. But what makes you think we’ll even be a good couple?” Junmyeon looks into Yixing’s eyes, and finds again nothing but genuine excitement, too reminiscent of Jongdae just a few days ago.

“You both take care of people. You’re a lot more expressive and he’s more subtle in his care, but you’re both reliable. And if nothing else, I would’ve said that you’re good for each other because he’ll take care of you.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“How many nights have you slept over in the office this year? How many times have you skipped lunch and breakfast?”

“You’re literally not a cent better.” Junmyeon responds, thinking about all the times he’s called Yixing to have him pick up still surrounded by work or getting no answer at all.

“Yeah, but I’m working on it. And I heard that you were protesting this vacation until you started spending time with Yifan.” 

“Because I didn’t want them to focus on my love life!” Junmyeon sounds stupid, and he knows it, but how else is he going to distract himself from the fact that he doesn’t know what to do without the schedule of work?

Yixing opens his arms for a hug and Junmyeon gladly accepts. He’s needed this for awhile. “Want to have a lazy day watching whatever on tv and complaining about it? We can talk about Yifan later.”

Yifan! “Oh! We have passes to the aquarium! We were going to use them a few days ago but it was so hot that we didn’t bother.”

Yixing’s look says volumes. “Shut up,” Junmyeon tries to wave off, “I’ll just cancel with him and we can have a lazy day.” 

“And leave him hanging? Cancel and invite him over. I want to see how he is.” And as if on cue, Junmyeon’s phone buzzes with a message from Yifan, asking him when they want to meet.

And before Junmyeon can do anything, Yixing has his phone and a message sent. Damn, Junmyeon forget that he had Yixing put his fingerprints in. When Yifan responds with a confused positive, Junmyeon remembers that his best friend is a demon.

“Xing!” 

“You’ll thank me later. I won’t say anything too bad.” Junmyeon face-palms harder onto Yixing’s shoulder. Maybe if he knocks himself out before Yifan gets here, the teasing he’ll have to endure later would be a lot less.

~~~

Yixing said that he was spending the day with Jongdae, so Junmyeon and Yifan can finally go to the aquarium because Yixing says he doesn’t want to “third-wheel.” The weather isn’t going to kill anyone, there’s no sudden intrusion of peoples, and Junmyeon had hoped that it’d be fun. And it had been. They watched a dolphin show, got to feed some penguins, and are now on their way to the beach, like their original plan had been.

“So, what ice cream do you want?” Yifan asks, pointing at the ice cream cart. 

“You know what I like.”

“I like hearing it just to make sure.” 

“Mint chocolate chip.” Yifan nods in confirmation, before dragging Junmyeon over to get it anyways, making him having to confirm anything useless.

“If you were going to drag me over anyways, then why bother asking me what I want?” Junmyeon asks, in line behind a little boy clutching hard to a bill, and a mom dealing with twins.

“I was going to buy it, but I was scared that I would lose you in the crowd. You’re short.” 

“Haha, you’re going to lose me in a crowd full of kids.” Junmyeon snarks, and Yifan nods seriously, putting on his best poker face.

“You’re short enough for it.” His serious expression breaks when Junmyeon hits his arm, and he laughs as they move up in the line for the ice cream.

“So how long are we going to be on the beach afterwards?” Junmyeon asks, already wondering about dinner. There’s a really good place that he set a reservation for, but it’s at 7 and across the city.

“Until you don’t want to be at the beach anymore. I don’t really care.” Yifan says carelessly, swinging their arms so that they nearly hit the boy in front. 

“Careful.” Junmyeon scolds, stilling their arms though the boy doesn’t seem to have noticed a thing.

“We didn’t hit him. One mint ice cream cone with two scoops and one cone with one scoop of vanilla and one scoop of green tea please.” Yifan orders, despite it being Junmyeon’s day to pay. He also bats away Junmyeon’s hand when he tries to hand over the cash, and then they stroll off, ice cream hand in hand.

“Stop paying when it’s my day to pay or else I’ll start doing it to you.” Junmyeon threatens emptily, and Yifan just laughs at him. 

“You’re still paying for dinner, so I get to pay for dessert.” This was in no way what they had planned, but Junmyeon will let it slide. For now.

“I don’t understand how you can just eat with the two flavours mixed together.” Junmyeon remarks as he watches Yifan take a lick of the melting ice cream, getting both green tea and vanilla in one bite.

“They both taste good. Besides, green tea vanilla is better than toothpaste with a hint of chocolate.”

Junmyeon gasps dramatically. If he had a free hand, he probably would’ve raised it to his chest in shock. “How dare you. I treat you so well and then you turn around and stab me in the back like this.”

“It’s nothing personal. I just think your taste is horrid and you need your taste buds checked.” 

“Well, I think…” Junmyeon’s insult evaporates mid-sentence when his ears suddenly decide to start working after years of barely able to hear people three inches away. It’s the sound of Luhan laughing, and Junmyeon suddenly sees out of the corner of his eye Minseok and Luhan walking on the other side of the street, heading straight to the cross-walk to cross.

“What, can’t think of an insult because I’m perfect?” Yifan’s joke falls a bit flat, probably judging by the fact that Junmyeon doesn’t look like he’s doing so well.

“Hide.” Junmyeon drags Yifan behind a set of rather tall bushes to squat down, and Yifan goes willingly, if a bit slow and confused.

“What are we hiding from?” Yifan follows Junmyeon in poking his head out from behind the bushes, scanning for something wrong. “What’s going on?”

“That’s my brother and his husband. I can’t let them see us or I’ll never live this down.”

“What? Why?” Junmyeon sees all the warning signs and barrels past them anyways.

“Because they’ll think we’re dating and I don’t want them to.” 

“And what’s so bad about us dating?” Yifan’s voice is downright cold, and Junmyeon finally pauses, taken aback by tight lips and hardened eyes that seem too unfamiliar, too aloof to be directed at him.

“Ah, it’s just…”

“Just what? I’m someone terrible to be seen in public with?” 

“No! It’s just…”

“Oh, I see how it is. I’m sorry for assuming that I had a chance.” Wait. WHat -

“What?”

“You’re better than anyone else I’ve ever met, and I think I actually like you, but if you don’t feel the same then I guess not. I’m sorry for ruining this friendship then.” Yifan bows his head, looking very close to letting go of Junmyeon and just walking away.

“No, it’s not like that!” Junmyeon tightens his hand on Yifan’s but releases it immediately after his brain cells catch up to him. What is he trying to do?

“Then what is it like?”

“I thought,” Junmyeon falters. A part of him wants desperately for this to mean what he thinks it means, but another, bigger part is afraid of everything that might come with a potential relationship. “I thought that you wouldn’t like to date me so it’s better to not let anyone have any assumptions.”

“Oh.” Yifan quiets down, staring straight at Junmyeon. Then a movement catches Junmyeon’s eye, and Junmyeon’s eyes dart to Yifan’s ice cream, where some green tea is threatening to run onto his hands.

“Your ice cream.”

“I can deal with it later.” 

“It’s going to run onto your hand.”

“Does that really matter right now?”

“Lift up your hand.” Yifan obeys, and Junmyeon leans forwards to lick the stream off, despite the fact everything is going awry. Huh. It doesn’t taste that bad mixed together.

“What the fuck.” Yifan laughs the words out, emotion in his eyes fully screaming that he thinks Junmyeon has finally lost it.

Junmyeon shrugs. “It was bothering me.” 

“You’re completely insane.”

“You love it.” 

Yifan leans over to kiss him, and Junmyeon kisses back. Green tea and vanilla tastes a lot better on Yifan’s lips. 

“I do.” 

Well, what the fuck is Junmyeon going to do now? All his brilliant brilliant dinner confession plans just flew out the window.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here, my dear Minseok?” Oh shit, that’s Luhan.

“I think my plan finally worked out.” Minseok replies, probably also glowing with excitement.

“Wait, what plan?” Junmyeon turns around to face his older brother, and sure enough, the duo is beaming. This is like enough blackmail material for years, and Junmyeon regrets not jumping into the ocean when he had the chance.

“Setting you up, of course. I buy you tickets, and then recommend the same exact show and time to Yifan so he buys a ticket and meets you. It’s flawless, and it works!” Minseok holds a hand, and Luhan reaches into his pocket and passes a crumpled up bill over to Minseok. 

Yifan coughs, standing up so it’s not as awkward, pulling Junmyeon up. There’s ice cream all over Junmyeon’s hand, but that’s in no way the biggest problem.

“Well, time to go. I think we have important matters elsewhere, immediately.” Yifan says, gently pulling Junmyeon along. Junmyeon cannot will his legs to move fast enough.

Luhan calls something after them in Mandarin and Yifan responds with something that leaves the duo laughing. Damn, he really needs to brush up on his Mandarin. And get rid of this stupid grin on his face. 

Then they turn the corner and Yifan beams at him, and Junmyeon decides that he first needs to learn more about the delicacies of this smile, and perhaps the intricacies of his lips.


	2. The Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this is separate because I wanted to add on a mini-trigger warning because I'm not entirely sure if this counts as a trigger or not, but like better safe than sorry. (I'm usually both.)
> 
> Starting from "'Yeah.' Junmyeon is just making it really big for nothing." all the way to "If he did, Junmyeon doesn’t remember being invited to the party." there is a part of a prank where the character is being attacked? But like not really attacked, just grabbed and briefly gagged. Honestly most of this chapter is like a hidden camera ghost prank.

Junmyeon stands at the end of the hallway, nervous for the most important day of his life. His heart is in knots, and his pulse jumps around like a professional gymnast on a trampoline. 

“Come on Myeonnie, it’ll be fine. It’s just meeting your parents, what could go wrong? My mom loved you.” Yifan give him a reassuring squeeze, and Junmyeon finally wills himself to step out of the elevator instead of holding the door open.

“Because they’re my parents. My dad’s going to start teasing me about wedding plans, and my mom’s going to start making the plans!” 

Junmyeon’s phone rings, and without looking at it, he answers, expecting Yixing or maybe Zitao. “Hello?” 

“Junmyeon, what are you doing at the end of the hall with that lovely man?” Jeongsoon’s voice comes over the speaker, and Junmyeon feels himself pale. Fuck, he forgot they had control over the security cameras in this building.

“Standing?”

“Well, then stop standing and come in. We’ve been waiting a long time for this.” Heechul’s voice comes slightly lighter, as if he was shouting into speaker phone. The door opens ominously, and Junmyeon debates calling an exorcist before going in.

Junmyeon ends the call as fast as he can, and Yifan gives him another reassuring squeeze. “It’ll be fine.”

“If I don’t get out alive, I love you.” Yifan rolls his eyes at Junmyeon’s dramatics and starts forwards.

“You’ll be fine because I’m with you.” Yifan has to tug at Junmyeon’s hands twice to get him to step forwards. “It’ll be over and then we can go for a movie or something.”

“Yeah.” Junmyeon is just making it really big for nothing. They’re his parents, they won’t tear them to shreds.

The first two steps into the apartment is fine, even if it’s weird that the lights are off. Then Junmyeon takes another step in and the door closes behind him. From the darkness comes hands, and before he could even scream, they’re wrapping around his eyes and mouth and pulling him away, Yifan’s hand slipping through his. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck this was a horrible idea he’s going to die like a horror movie protagonist fuck fuck fuck fuck.

The hands don’t come off until Junmyeon gets roughly thrown onto a bed, and when it does come off, a gag replaces it before he could get the full scream out, sounding more like a choked off shrill. Junmyeon opens his eyes, ready to face whatever demon is peering down at him, and comes face to face with Minseok?

“If you promise not to scream, we can take the gag out.” We?

Junmyeon looks around and finds Jongdae and Luhan standing around him, the trio all dressed in black, the light streaming in from the windows a stark contrast to the darkness of before. The relief this sends to his heart then sends tears to his eyes, and he nods as he wipes his eyes, trying hard not to cry. Minseok takes the gag out, which wasn’t actually secured to Junmyeon and was more of a psychological scare.

“Did you have to go through this, Minseok-hyung?” If he did, Junmyeon doesn’t remember being invited to the party.

“No, because I wasn’t stubborn about not letting my family know I was dating someone.” Junmyeon rolls his eyes. They really do know how to stop the tears from flowing. 

“Let’s see how it goes.” Jongdae gestures to a set of monitors on a table, and Junmyeon takes a look around at his surroundings. This is his dad’s room, since Jeongsoon doesn’t want to deal with the minimal mess Heechul makes. They still usually sleep in the same bed, so it isn’t really necessary, but when you have an entire floor, you can do whatever you want.

“Myeonnie?! Where did you go?!” A night vision camera is recording Yifan in the living room, reaching around blindly, calling out for Junmyeon. Oh fuck, what are they going to do to Yifan?

“We’re not going to hurt him.” Minseok reassures, and Junmyeon’s heart settles.

“Much.” Luhan mumbles cynically with the pain of someone who’s been through it already, and Junmyeon’s heart enters triple time.

Jongin, dressed in robes of all black like a grim reaper, floats his way to Yifan with all his previous ballet background, and stops right in front of Yifan. “Wu Kris.” 

Yifan jumps nearly a foot in the air, and if Jongin didn’t dodge, would’ve gotten a hand to the face. Junmyeon doesn’t blame him. If it was Junmyeon, he probably would’ve screamed and punched Jongin.

“Jongin?” Yifan asks in a quivering voice, placing the voice to the figure.

Jongin gives him a single very creepy nod, and Junmyeon wonders who taught him to do that. Probably Minseok, the jerk. “If you would follow me, Kris.”

“What if I don’t want to?” Junmyeon hears Yifan’s voice tremble, and feels bad for putting his poor boyfriend through all this trouble. 

“If you want to see Junmyeon again, you’ll follow me.” Jongin turns and starts walking away, and Yifan barely manages to catch a handful of the back of Jongin’s cloak to not lose him. They watch as the duo walk off one camera and into the other, and Junmyeon realises exactly where they’re going as soon as they turn down the corridor. They’re going right into Heechul’s office next door, which is probably why the last screen is completely dark.

Sure enough, Jongin stops directly in front of the open study and Yifan bumps into him, before taking a tiny step back.

“Walk forwards until you find a chair, and sit in it.” Jongin informs Yifan, and before Yifan could say another word, he floats down the hallway and off the screen.

“Jongin? Where are you? Junmyeon? I’m sorry for saying your family’s not insane!”

No one responds, though Junmyeon hears some silent laughing from Luhan, gaining him two glares. 

“Junmyeon. We can’t make a single sound, so if you don’t think you can keep from calling out, we can gag you again.” Jongdae whispers, pulling the gag back out from wherever they got it from.

“I won’t make a sound.” Junmyeon whispers back, rather not wanting to experience being gagged again.

“Fine. But if you don’t…” Jongdae leaves the warning up in the air, and Junmyeon rolls his eyes, turning his attention back to Yifan walking into the study. Jongin floats back on screen after Yifan slowly feels his way forward, and after a screech that must be Yifan pulling the chair back and sitting down, Jongin pulls the door close with a bang. 

Mumbled Mandarin comes up from the dark screen, and Luhan shakes even harder with laughter. Minseok raises the gag threatenly at his husband, and Luhan shakes his head, body still quivering with the energy of not making a sound while laughing.

“Kinky.” Jongdae whispers, and seconds later, he’s tackled to the bed by Minseok, the gag being forced into his mouth instead. 

“Did I do good?” Junmyeon nearly jumps into the screens when Jongin’s voice comes out of nowhere, and Minseok stops his wrestling to give him a thumbs up, Jongin looking very pleased with himself. God, how did he come in so quietly that Junmyeon didn’t even hear the door open?

“Wu Kris.” Heechul’s booming voice echoes through the door, and then a light bursts on, glaring down at Yifan. The camera is positioned over Heechul and Jeongsoon’s head, and Junmyeon watches as they quickly remove their sunglasses while Yifan is still blinded by the light.

“Yes?” Yifan asks meekly, squinting into the light, shading his eyes.

“How do you feel about my son?” 

“Kim Suho.” Jeongsoon quickly adds onto Heechul’s question, having learned their lesson when Luhan, the fool, launched straight into a long and composed-sounding essay about how watching Jongin dance at the age of 14 inspired him to become a better person and start investing smarter in stocks that paid off. He wasn’t stopped because Jeongsoon and Heechul thought that essay was actually pretty good, but then he was about to go off about how Jongdae’s relationship with Chanyeol and Baekhyun helped him discover more about himself, and then they had to cut him off and actually ask about Minseok.

“I love him.”

Minseok nudges Junmyeon, pointing at the door leading to Heechul’s study. Junmyeon takes that as his permission to be able to go, and sneaks through, ending up right behind his parents and the light shining directly into Yifan’s face.

“Congratulations, we approve.” Jeongsoon turns off the spotlight as Heechul claps loudly, the curtains covering the windows quickly coming open.

“Wait, that’s it? That’s the interrogation?” Yifan blinks in confusion, or maybe he was still trying to make sure that his eyes were working. Junmyeon slides into his lap, and Yifan wraps him in a hug, still blinking.

“That’s it. Unless you want more.” Jeongsoon says, smiling. “Want something to drink or eat? We just bought some green tea popsicles.”

“So you set up this whole horror movie-like thing purely to ask me one question? Also, I would like a popsicle please.” Jeongsoon nods, walking out as the rest of the ghost cast files in, all beams and smiles now that the prank is over.

Junmyeon watches as light starts entering down the hall, as his mom starts opening windows and turning on lights as she heads to the kitchen.

“Well, if you were any less dedicated, you would’ve just turned around and headed straight for the door as soon as Junmyeon was taken. You should’ve listened when he said that we were crazy.” Heechul explains, taking his seat behind his study desk again.

“At least I know why you’re so dramatic.” Yifan mutters, and Junmyeon takes offence. 

“I’m not that dramatic. Not at all compared to my parents.”

“That’s about right. Now, do you have a date planned for the wedding? Spring is the perfect time of year, if you have nothing in mind.” Jeongsoon asks, walking back in and handing Yifan the popsicle. Yifan’s hands shake as he tries to tug the wrapper open, and Junmyeon does it for him, small apology for now.

“Mom! We just started dating, no wedding talk.” Junmyeon scolds, and she winks, sitting back down as well.

“If you ever want to start, Chanyeol knows a few guys who can give you discounts on jewelry.” Jongdae offers, and Yifan shakes his head.

“If I ever propose, I think I already know what ring I’d use.” Junmyeon turns scarlet as Yifan winks, and then buries his head in Yifan’s chest as everyone starts cheering. 

“Well, the goal is the biggest spring wedding we can have. If it doesn’t beat out your brother’s in popularity, then we’ll have it again.” Heechul demands, and Junmyeon tries to hide his head even more in Yifan’s chest. Minseok and Luhan’s wedding had taken over the news in both the finance and celebrity sections, due to the fact that it meant they were alliancing two powerhouse companies. Junmyeon wonders if it’s too late to ask for a small and private wedding.

“If Junmyeon wishes.” Yifan replies, and Junmyeon decides that he’s just going to have to not face his family ever again.

~~~

“I want a small wedding.” They finally escaped from Junmyeon’s family, heading to a light, happy movie to bring their minds off things. Junmyeon finds himself blurting random stuff out as a way to finally bring his heart down to the same level of calmness as the rest of his body, and unfortunately, that was something that had escaped from his mouth.

“Weren’t you the one who said no wedding talk?” Yifan teases, and Junmyeon bumps into his shoulder.

“I know, I just want to let you know in case my family starts pushing.” Yifan nods at the statement, and they push through the doors of the theatre where they had officially met, on their first unofficial date. The weather is cooler now, and the first signs of autumn are starting to settle in, drawn by the appearance of sweaters and jackets and coats. Yifan is working again in China, and though Junmyeon spends nights alone in his Seoul apartment, they’ll make it work. 

“If you wish.” Yifan promises. 

And Junmyeon thinks he would.


End file.
